A Podcast! and Stashoholism Confessional: Fabric Mule Edition

As you may have already seen on Cidell's blog, we finally did another podcast! Only a two year time lapse. That's not so bad, right? We discuss the changes Burda has made to its website and tracing sheets, what we think of the style direction, and the May and June 2011 issues. You can download it from podbean or itunes, and you can listen to it below.

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And while I have you distracted, I will sneak in some recent fabric acquisitions. Although, I have to say, I am proud of my sustained restraint when it comes to fabric buying this year! Maybe I really have turned over a new leaf. But I shouldn't get self-congratulatory yet; I have historically had good restraint the first half of the year and then go nuts the second half. But my new technique of needing to be able to visualize a specific project for the fabric helps.


This fabric was a gift from a dear friend who is working in Africa this year. It's a wax print that I know is genuine because it still has the wax in it! I'm going to have to figure out how to launder that out. She has become the expat expert on Monrovia's fabric market and has had so many gorgeous outfits made while there. I can't wait to see them all when she finally returns home! The fabric is sold in 3 yard cuts, so I have plenty here. Any pattern ideas?


For this fabric, I must take full responsibility. When Cidell and I visited Michael's/A Fabric Place in February, he had just put out a whole table of gorgeous silk jerseys. They were priced around $24/yd and I just couldn't pull the trigger. But when I heard through the grapevine that he had recently put the silk jerseys on sale on his website, my ears perked up. Alas, the butterfly print I'd fallen in love with was long gone, but Cidell picked up this beautiful print for me at half price. It's probably just as well, as this print is more professional (to the extent that a bright print is ever professional!). It will become a fabulous wrap dress in the luxurious style of DVF, using Butterick 5454. I will try to figure out how to get a bigger underlap, though.

Now I really can't buy any more fabric until I do some sewing! I have made one dress and a helmet cover since I got back from the Netherlands, that's it! I have been so busy every weekend. I haven't spent a Saturday night at home in 6 weeks and it shows in my sewing. I cut out a nightgown two weeks ago and haven't even started constructing it. Well, that is going to change this weekend. It is a weekend of me and sewing! Or at least a weekend of sewing up the freaking nightgown already.

June BWOF Podcast

Cidell and I were so excited about the June BWOF that we had to podcast about it right away. You can listen to the player below, download it here, or catch us on iTunes.

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I did a major photo shoot over the weekend--nine different looks--so I have some projects to review in the coming weeks!

In the "you know you're obsessed when..." category, last night I had a dream that I was on vacation with my family. We stopped at a Pucci outlet (????) where they had remnants of fabric. Many of them were small, 1/4 yard or less, but there were a few larger pieces. Even as remnants, they were in the $30+/yard price category, but there was a sign on the table that everything was $1.99/yard. I found a gorgeous white and orange cross-woven silk dupioni with a Pucci border print. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to make with it, but I had to have it. There was also a piece pre-shirred fabric, such as that sold at Joann, but it was silk jersey. There was only 1/4 yard, so no way to make a dress out of it, but I thought maybe if I picked out the elastic shirring I could make some use of it. But when I looked more closely I could see that the fabric was kind of disintegrating and there were tiny holes all over where the shirring was.

I wonder what Freud would make of such dreams.

Podcast and Stashoholism Confessional

I started to make the 03-2009-104 high waisted pencil skirt and found to my horror that I had no medium weight white interfacing at all! I would have used a heavy weight, but my fabric has some stretch that I wanted to preserve. So I had to take a trip to the Joann for some white stretch interfacing and some medium weight white interfacing.

I looked at the fabric while I was there, as this was not my normal Joann and it seemed a little larger with a little better selection. There were some cute cotton prints, but nothing I absolutely had to have (especially at Joann's inflated prices) so I picked up some patterns and headed to the cutting table with my interfacing. The woman in front of me was buying a bunch of denim, and one of the bolts was a great medium weight stretch dark denim and I suddenly had the vision of 04-2009-115 made up in denim for a flirty going out dress and had to have it.

I didn't have time to sew over the weekend, alas, so no progress on the jacket. I was going to do it Sunday night, but then Cidell called and said she was on her way over! Very exciting. DC and Baltimore aren't so very far apart, but far enough that we don't get to see each other in person very often so it's a real treat when we do. Our main goal was to get pizza at Pete's New Haven Pizza, but before we headed out to dinner we did a podcast!

After a few requests, here are some show notes:

Tracy Reese Sally Hanson nail colors from All Lacquered Up

Cidell's post on the Anthropologie Dress

Vogue 1086 Tracy Reece sun dress design

Burda [World of Fashion] April

Burda [World of Fashion] May

Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity

You can listen to the podcast below, download it on Podbean, or subscribe to us on iTunes.

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Podcast!

Cidell and I were both home long enough to record a podcast! We discuss the January and February issues of BWOF--February just arrived in our mailboxes yesterday. Are we not punctual? We also talk about our current projects and our current mantras.

You can play it below, visit our Podbean channel or download us on iTunes.

If you go to either of those, please let me know what photo shows up. I've tried to upload a photo of me and Cidell but it's not showing up for me.

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Back Home, Off Again, and a Podcast

After my very quick trip to Paris I finally made it home yesterday. I didn't get a chance to do much in Paris but work, but I did get to have a lovely evening with Isabelle of Kitty Couture! I got to see the little bits of sewing space she has carved out of her Paris apartment while we drank our kir and then we headed off to dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to meet up with Karen as she was sick but next time!

I finished the skirt and wore it with the suit and it looked lovely, though the wool wrinkled like crazy. I need to find some kind of sizing or something to give it more body. I lined it, so that's not the issue. I also knocked out a quick cowl top in the morning before being picked up by the Super Shuttle.

As soon as I got home I started a version of Simplicity 3775 from the plaid knit I got at G Street last time. It kept me awake until 8 (as late as I *had* to stay up to fight jet lag) and I finished it this morning when jet lag woke me up at 6.

After one night in my own bed I headed back onto the road, taking the train to Cidell's where we ate cake and podcasted (you can download it here or on itunes under trenabdc). In the morning we're off to Philly for a sewing meetup. Wish my credit card luck. `-)

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Podcast!

Cidell and I chat about the recent issues of BWOF (and she tantalizes me with the fact that she has already received October and I have not), our upcoming exotic travel (hers more exotic than mine), and current projects. Grab some hand sewing and hit play below, head to the page where it's posted, or find us on itunes! It's under trenabdc.

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Podcastic

The good thing about our podcasts not being on any sort of schedule whatsoever is that sometimes you get one sooner than you expect. (If, indeed, you expect them at all.) I went to Baltimore over the weekend where Cidell took hundreds of photographs of me and cooked dinner while I took a nap. If she was trying to offer positive reinforcement for my visit it definitely worked!

We spent all night in the sewing room, but took a little time to make a podcast. You can download it here. We're trying to figure out how to get it on iTunes, but I have no idea how. There are a few seconds of silence at the beginning (we didn't know how to start with both of us there!) so don't worry, you're not malfunctioning.

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New Podcast!

Cidell and I finally had the chance to do a podcast! We were behind on BWOF issues, so in this one we discuss both June and the July issue we got today. I am always hoping to get mine a day early so I can gloat, but it rarely happens. `-) The projects I discussed are McCall 5246 and Vogue 8386, pictures to come...eventually. You can download the podcast to your mp3 player for portability here.

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Did you notice my new tag cloud? I love it! Way back in the beginning days of the internet I actually knew enough html to code simple web pages. The code has gotten a lot more complicated, but a generous cybercitizen has done the coding for you. The directions are easy to follow and worked on the first try. He even tells you how to do custom colors!

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In the podcast I reveal the reason I wasn't at the Baltimore meetup--I was hanging out with other internet friends. They are also crafty but not all of them sew, so I did a little lesson on how to make a simple skirt. Amber documented the process in photos and made up a great post for her blog. Check it out!

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Bargaining for Fabric

In our third podcast, Cidell and I talk about the April edition of BWOF. Yeah, we're a little behind because I keep jetting around the world. So I know I've kept you in suspense for way too long, but I'd like to introduce the fabrics I bought in Vietnam:



You can hear the kind of hard bargain I drove for them in the podcast. One thing I didn't get a chance to explain is how the stalls work. They have short lengths (about 2 meters) of lots and lots of fabrics. If you want a short length, you just get what's there. If you want a longer length, they get on the phone and call someone who magically appears a few minutes later with it. How they manage to keep track of hundreds of varieties of fabric and where in the world they store the extras is one of life's mysteries.

The swiss dot with orange polka dots was my first purchase in the Mekong Delta town of My Tho. I had a translator with me as that was the work part. I didn't bargain though--at around $3/yd, I couldn't ask to go any lower.

The stretch silks I got at the Ben Thanh market in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I bargained for Cidell's fabric and ended up paying around $5 yard. When the asking price at the next stall, where I got the rest of the silk, was only around $3.50 yard, I was no longer quite so proud about my bargaining skills. I just paid their asking price, because I thought it would be obscene to get it any cheaper.

There is more fabric than you can shake a stick at. Here's the fancy stuff:



Here I am in hog heaven. Check out the slightly dazed, slightly manic grin.



And here's the girl who sold me the fabric at non-tourist-fleecing prices (I think):



I haven't decided what all it will be yet, but I think the blue floral might be the Duchess of Windsor dress from the March BWOF. I made it in a knit (and still haven't reviewed it) for Vietnam, and loved it:



fabric photos from the trip and all the photos from the trip.

You can download the podcast here, or listen to it below.

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Cidell insists that I show you my Paris wardrobe. I leave in the morning so I don't have time to say anything about it. But a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Miss Celie and the Slapdash Sewist Chat: Family History

This time Cidell and I talked about how we started sewing, the sewing that has gone on in our families, her trip to PR Weekend in LA including a disastrous attempt at public transportation, and of course lots of other random stuff. It gave me a chance to talk a little about my Nana, who passed away about ten years ago and has been on my mind a lot lately for some reason.

We also propose some names for the podcast for you to ponder. I think you should consider voting for "Hemline Hotline" or "A Stitchable World," but that's just me. :-P

You can visit it for download here.

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Vote for your favorite name!

Miss Celie and the Slapdash Sewist Chat: BWOF

So, Cidell and I have been wanting to do a podcast forever. We see each other in person pretty frequently, but we always have too much going on to sit down with a computer and a microphone and record our ever-fascinating conversation. I finally joined Skype and while we were skyping Cidell realized that she could use the Garage Band software that came on her nifty Mac to record our conversation. And now we can podcast without limits! The technical stuff has taken the better part of the past two days, but hopefully we have it figured out.

For our first episode, we talk about Burda World of Fashion. How much we love it, the laughter, the tears, the joy.

You can visit and download the podcast here.

We hope you enjoy! If you do, please offer your help with name and future topic suggestions.

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