British Sewing Bee

See I finally got to watch the Great British Sewing Bee (I know, a little late) and I LOVED it! If you are the other person who still hasn't seen it, I highly recommend it. American sewing shows should really strive for what they did there. But what I thought was really funny was as I was watching it, my boyfriend looked over my shoulder and said, "So she pretty much just blows them out of the water each time, huh?", referring to Ann. Yup, even a computer-game playing science nerd recognized that Ann is a rockstar. Go Ann!

Guess who's back!

I'm back, I'm here, hallelujah! I passed both my classes (I love how once you get into grad school, you don't care much about the grades anymore), but still have my big oral exam coming up. Early July is the new goal, here's hoping.

I finished my final exam on a Wednesday a couple weeks ago and came home with what my boyfriend called an excess of creative energy. I HAD to sew something. So what did I choose? Something simple and familiar. Hells NO! How about something I've never ever done before.

Jersey. Slippery, slidey, stretchy craziness. A Mission Maxi.

Not high in this picture, just in case you thought so.

And it turned out sooo well! What a return to the game. Check out those matching side seams.

Ok, maybe not the matching above the waist, but below the waist it flawless! The jersey is from Gorgeous Fabrics, and they still have it here! I followed the instructions and they were great. Everything is serged (wow, was the serger a rockstar on this fabric!), except for topstitching the neckline binding. I ever so slightly stretched out the armhole binding on one side, but its only noticeable to us, right? I also serged the hem but didn't hem it in any way because I wanted as much stretchiness as humanly possible. Also, the pattern is true to size, what a concept!

Closer look at the binding. The neck binding is cut with primarily the yellow color and the arm bindings are cut with primarily the blue color, a detail only the maker could love.

Funny story, but promise not to tell my landlord, mkay? I finally bought some tracing paper (ok, exam paper, but the same thing). I traced this pattern because I know my mom wants one of these someday and I wanted to preserve the pattern. Little did I realize that permanent marker goes right through exam paper onto the wood floor below. Ruhroh. It'll wear away by the time I move out? Right? RIGHT?

I feel pretty.

AND I'M BACK, BABY!