The pattern is called The Staple Dress, and it’s designed by April Rhodes. She’s amazing and awesome. I’ve fiddled it a bit to fit me better, I have a long torso and stubby legs, so I dropped the pockets 1 1/2″. I also just sew around, I’m not terribly great with patterns or instructions so I just sewed for armpit to hem, around the pockets, all in one swoop. I also did a blind hem on these three because its challenging and looks great.

#2 Made in a Libert Lifestyle print, the fabric washes up really nicely. It’s a little lighter than normal quilting cotton. I love this one, it’s classic and pretty. It has bright red print (also Liberty) pockets and neck/sleeve binding. I cut the neckline down an inch+ from the shoulder seams so my giant noggin would fit through better. I wear a size M, I’m almost 5’10″ and weigh 150lbs.


#3 Made in a feather print by Martha Negley. I made this one short, it’s just a top, because I only had so much fabric and I was having the itch to cut and sew. I like it, but no pockets.

#4 Made in a lovely Japanese style fish print. I got this fabric at a quilt store here in Toronto that I’d never been to before but the owner knew who I was, which made me laugh and feel at ease. I was just about to leave empty handed-I really wanted a yellow or pink staple-when I saw this print and went for it. The pockets and binding are a different colourway of the feather print, in mustard, because fish and feathers are poetic together. I LOVE this dress. The awesome part is that I started work on it quite early in the day and accidentally cut two fronts!! Ack! I made it work, though, just cut the front (front?) about an inch down and cut an extra long binding and it all worked out beautifully. Clearly a simple, perfect, pattern that works for my limited garment making skills!

Thank you April for making me think I can sew garments!

That’s me, today.

I’m working on a dress for myself. It’s an easy pattern, the staple dress by April Rhodes who we met at camp, fell in love with, and I was tempted to kidnap her and take her home with me. Lord knows she is small enough. Anyway, my first one will be done soon.

I guess this was more about glasses than sewing.

It takes me back to when I was in school and didn’t do homework or projects. Or practice music, or try at all at gymnastics. The only thing I’ve ever done that made me feel proud and brave was running the 100m sprint in grade 7, I came in first place. That is the first and last time I can remember feeling confident.

I promise, none of this is intentional, I hate it more than anyone who I’ve pissed off, I assure you. I just really, really, don’t want people looking at me, judging me, thinking about me. Maybe that makes no sense, especially with writing a blog that’s named after me, but there it is.

You should buy the magic zigzag pillows, all of them, they are seriously fucking amazing.

I was trying to go around the edges, haha. I’ll update footstool status as I get more finished.

Then I thought, hey, I could do that with one fat quarter. Ok, two. The fq I used is one of the cheater prints, fakey patchwork. I cut that into 5″ squares, 12 of them. Then I dug through my scrap stash and pulled out various solids and prints and I very nearly used some vintage sheet squares from Ari’s Traveller quilt (the yellow and blue is from that, the light purple from my sister’s hst quilt!), then I dug through my pink pile and found this special circle print that Libs gave me and it seemed perfect. I used an old yellow towel for the back. The mats I found online didn’t use binding but I’m a weirdo that likes binding so I pieced together some yellows from my log cabin and voila!


The binding is pretty brutal so if you’re ever visiting, don’t look too closely. I was going to use this opportunity to try out some free motion quilting but it’s so daunting I just went with white thread in the ditch and then straight lines of blue, pink, green, and orange.

So, who wants one? These might wind up on etsy.

This is the second version of this hat I’ve knit this week. One may well wonder just how many hand knit hats I require. The answer is simple: all of them. This yarn is Madelinetosh merino and it’s gorgeous. This colour way is called Robin’s Egg.


It’s soft and knits up quickly.

Have I mentioned the fish lately? Dylan, who was Donna’s replacement, has finally chilled out. Initially he was pretty scared and hid under rocks and was confused by Kelly’s desire to hide under him. I mean, really, she’s way bigger and it was pretty silly. Now he seems content to lurk at the surface and eat bubbles. All pet fish beg for food, I think, but for me it never gets boring. He is just about the cutest thing around and I’m hoping that when I move he comes with.

Pure selflessness. And greed.

Here is what I’ve started and can’t stop now:


It will eventually be a 60″ square quilt made of navy+assorted pinks. I have made 455 half square triangles so far and need another 345 to start putting it together. I have a bunch of pink fat quarters in my stash and while I don’t mind cutting into them (well, sort of, like a lot of quilters my stash is almost as important as any finished project) I feel like it might be nice to have people give me pink scraps to use, that way they become part of the quilt.

I most probably should start going to the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild meetings again but they happen on the last Sunday of each month and somehow I’m always busy that day. Or forgetful.

Anyway, about the original thought, the fabric swap. Does anyone think this might be fun? Would straight up trading be good or would a point system work better? Can we make requests for specific fabrics? I have a couple dream things I’d like (hello, Heather Ross’ Far Far Away II!) if you have that. And I have the space to do this, who is with me?

Here is a small portion of my carry on, a patchwork zippy bag I made this morning to hold small knitting things. I’m making more necklaces, I really love how they turn out and it’s something to keep my hands busy while I’m listening to books on tape.

Anyway, I’ll write when I get home, stories and pictures.

It’s such an easy project. The Fabricland at North York Centre is closing and has lots of interesting things on sale so I picked up some gridded interfacing, and used the tutorial from Oh Fransson, one of my favourite quilting blogs. This quilt is now living with Ari’s cousin who turned 4 recently!

How long have I been complaining about this problem? I’m sure Ali can tell you. I’ve known her for about 12 years, WOW, and we’ve gone over and over this. She is my one girlfriend that can totally relate. I’ve finally decided to take matters into my own hands (and super swank sewing machine) and make my own hats. Serious. I had a too tight bucket hat from The Gap that I hadn’t worn for a few years but held onto anyway. Sometimes being a pack rat is good. I picked it apart, totally, and made the band and top bigger by an inch and a half, and voila.

Hat 1, the test run chapeau, I cut from an old shirt destined for donation and some gingham scraps laying around. I used the interfacing from the original hat in the brim and made binding from scraps leftover from my yellow log cabin quilt. Somehow the brim makes it so I can not see a thing when I wear this one but I don’t mind.

Hat 2 was a little more planned and clearly turned out much better. I specifically picked out fabric at The Workroom (but don’t ask what they are, I don’t remember), one is upholstery weight and the other is quilting cotton. Pink because Martha Stewart says all women should wear something pink near their face to improve complexion. This hat is my favourite hat I have made, so far, for me. This hat has no binding because I figured out how to sew the 2 parts together. With no interfacing on hand, I used scraps of quilt batting.

Hat 3 I made for Shannon using the fabric he had printed at Spoonflower. It’s also upholstery weight but it was stiffer and a little trickier to sew. Of course I did a little fussy cutting and put the three of us front and centre. This hat is full on crazy looking and I love it. The lining is a pretty batik that I got at Walmart.

Hat 4 worked up quickly, I really have the hang of them now. I have to tweak the pattern a little to make things a little smoother but it’s pretty good. This hat is made of a Tula Pink print (LOVE IT!) and a purple lining.

So. I’ve already had a couple people ask for hats and while I’m more than happy to keep churning them out, at least for now, I’m not making them in any other sizes. They are big, like, 25″. I’m also total crap at mailing anything so it would have to be picked up, irl. Then we could hug and would that be the worst thing in the world? If you’re semi serious and still want one, please email me, my name like this blog and I use gmail.