DIY sewing project

Tucking into freshly squeezed Happiness

Happiness is rather relative, it really is a ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’ phenomenon.

I believe that the Serenity Prayer provides tips for true happiness- “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference“.

One who is unhappy about their “one-pack” could have the courage to change it into six-pack abs with a cleaner diet and exercise. One who is unhappy about their short stature could serenely accept that sometimes the best things do come in small packages.

Blue 1

About six years ago, I wasn’t too happy with my wonky smile, I knew that I could change it and decided to invest in dental braces.  Mind you, I wore braces as an adult, not as a giggly teenager reminiscent of the clichéd DNF (Designated Nerdy Friend) in American high school movies, and mine were the very evident metal type.

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Skirting Around the Issue

I have major Ostrich Syndrome (OS). When faced with unpleasantness, I simply bury my head in the sand and drift off to my happy place.

It’s a coping mechanism of sorts, that explains how I still managed to dance to ♫ “Ijo Shina” ♫ in my car (thank you 90.9 FM), wiggling with enthusiasm beneath the seat belt on my way to work, while relentless Lagos Traffic was (with a smirk, no less) gleefully wasting scarce petrol that I grudgingly purchased at the black market, “chai!”- inducing premium price.

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Why the daughter of the village goldsmith still goes about without earrings, is the riddle that is (more…)

Cut and Paste

It’s amusing to observe that there are those who wish they could cut and paste preferred features or attributes from here and there to produce their desired perfect spouse.

Cheese

Cheese!

They’d take Miss A’s awesome personality, add:  Miss B’s shapely apple butt, Miss C’s spirituality, Miss D’s intellect, Miss E’s life-of-the-party vibe, Miss F’s perky DD breasts, Miss G’s inspiring zest for adventure, Miss H’s beautiful smile, Miss I’s alluring sing-song voice, Miss J’s silky hair, Miss K’s morality minus any sanctimoniousness, and so on and so forth.

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Private Jets and whatnot

So, someone I know gave me gist of her conversation with a someone she knows, and it went thus:

My someone: I am traveling tomorrow o

Her someone: PJ ?

My someone: *blank confused stare*

Her someone: (ever so casually) Private Jet

My someone: (amused laugh) ah no, commercial

Who’d have thought that private jets would become so mainstream in certain circles, considering the harsh economic realities in Nigeria (ignore the gasp-inducing outlier that is the senators’ salaries)?.

Perhaps, it provides room for the less fortunate to be inspired and to aspire to be whatever it is that affords one the PJ life, but the wide income gap is rather disheartening.

burda

My “must-not -blink” face

Well, I made a lovely new dress and I flew commercial with Burda Air :-D.  It was my first time (more…)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s
clearer-breakfast-at-tiffanys-black-evening-dress-back-view

Source: Google images

I follow the Great British Sewing Bee TV series with immense interest. It’s a reality show like American Idol or Project Fame, but for sewers.

Tilly Walnes, from season one, writes a great blog that feels like a warm hug from your BFF as she welcomes you to the pearly gates of heaven *cue soft harp music*.

Chinelo Bally, from season two, learned how to sew using the “organic” freehand cutting technique (more…)

How Stella got her groove back

So, I bought the dress pictured below from a Next store 6 years ago, the price was massively reduced which is typical at the very end of summer sales.  As usual, the light-headed thrill of scoring a seemingly good bargain clouded my sense of good judgment.

“I love you Mr. Rochester”

All I need is a tight bun, not one stray strand of hair in sight, a horse & carriage and I’m good to go for a Jane Eyre audition.  A classic case of Impulse buying over Intent buying, as the cut of (more…)

Muslin musings

On a scale of one to ten (one being the best and ten the being worst),  seam ripping to correct a wonky stitch or to correct the fitting of a work-in-progress gets an off-the-scale one million rating, as per annoying things that can happen while I’m sewing. I literally gnash my teeth in agony as I unravel stitch by stitch.

Ah! my heart melted with immeasurable joy *insert delicious drips of sarcasm* the day I had to detach an invisible zip, when the zipper slider came off completely TWO minutes after I had attached said zip.

So, in instances when I have to draft a pattern from scratch and I am not entirely sure what the finished work will look like, and I have only a limited amount of the desired fabric or if I am using expensive fabric, I prefer to err on the side of caution by first sewing a muslin (calico test garment) which is also called a toile, to sort of “test drive” the pattern.

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Above is the muslin and below is the final reproduction in the fashion fabric.  Please excuse the creases, I wasn’t quite done with fittings.

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Unwrap me gently

I’ve been so zen and floating around my happy place this 4-day weekend *insert the rather strenuous feat of simultaneously batting eyelashes and sticking out tongue at Third Mainland Bridge Traffic*.  I watched “October 1” this afternoon, a well-produced movie with very beautiful cinematography and an engaging storyline. The feem is sweet!!!

So, wrap skirts are rather nice,  the structure can simply be described as “a skirt and a half “.

“1.5 skirts please”

I sewed this using a self-drafted pattern and created a curved hem line for a tulip effect. For (more…)

Graceful lace, Laceful grace

If I had to rank fabrics in order of their romance factor, I would place lace at the top of the class,  picture Kate Middleton in that heavenly Alexander McQueen wedding dress, *back of wrist against forehead-swoon*.

My work wear primarily consists of chiffon blouses and pencil skirts à la Bree Van De Kamp, my favorite Desperate Housewife (TV series);  a very graceful character both in her mannerisms and style.  I was rather fascinated by her psychotic obsession with perfection.

Front and back view

Pencil skirts whisper sweet nothings to a lady’s hips *blush+simper*. 😉

So, I made this skirt from a self drafted pattern, using a combination of soft lace (outer shell) and heavy-ish crepe (inner shell), which in retrospect was a mistake,  a lighter underlining fabric may (more…)