Caramia Made - Nursery (Part I)

Second-hand antique bassinette, hand-me-down crib, me-made diaper bag

Well, I'm officially due a month from today!  So in addition to finalizing our short list of names, I've also realized that we better get the nursery finished.  We've slowly been accumulating second-hand items from thrift shops, Craigslist, and friends, but now we need to put it all together.

6 Weeks Left!

Holiday Mocktail Dress & Tutorial

 I'm now 32 weeks preggo (only 8 weeks left - the final stretch!) and with the holiday season fast approaching, I needed a nice bump-friendly dress to wear to office Christmas parties and New Years celebrations.  Taking inspiration from this lovely number by ASOS, I used Simplicity 3835 to make a lacy cocktail dress (well, mocktails in my case).  This turned out to be a relatively simple pattern to modify to become maternity friendly and I've provided some steps below.

Totally Lustworthy

Sweet Jeebus!  I must have a Minoru Jacket from Sewaholic Patterns!

All images from Sewaholic.net

This might actually be the perfect coat for living on the (very wet) West Coast.  I'm totally pre-ordering one!  I can't wait to get my rat-claws on this pattern - even though I won't be making it until next year...

Happy Monday everyone!
xxx
Caramia

UFOs and Minor DIYs

My apologies for my lack of productivity in blog-land!  In all fairness, I've been working quite a lot lately between my two jobs (one contract is finishing at the end of November though - phew!).  We also bought a new (to us) car - a 2007 Honda Fit and sold my old car (a 1996 Honda Accord ; man I love them Hondas).  The Fit is a standard (aka manual transmission), so I've been busy in the evenings learning to drive it.  It took a few weeks, and a lot of tears, but I'm now zipping around Squamish in my new wheels!  I'm still not super confident, and it will probably be awhile before I take it into Vancouver, but that will come I'm sure.  Learning to drive a standard was one of my goals for 2011, so I can now tick that off my list - Yippee!

Ruffled Maternity Skirt

Paired with Sorbetto Maternity Top

I had started to make a skirt for a friend using the (free!) Twinkle by Wenlan A-Plus A-Line skirt available on Burdastyle, but never got around to finishing it.  Don't worry, I never told her I was making it so it's not like she was disappointed, ha ha ha!

It's made of a stretchy polyester fabric and turned out to be just perfect to adapt into a maternity skirt!  I cut up one of N's old t-shirts to make a belly band and added 2 rows of eyelet lace ruffles to the bottom.  I was inspired by kojodesigns great maternity skirt.  It's super comfortable and I wore it to work last week and got tons of compliments on it.

Mid-Week Musings

(Warning - this is definitely a post about pregnancy!  These are just my opinions and not to be taken as fact.)

How to Make Your Own Maternity Clothes

Throughout both pregnancies, I have slowly been bookmarking websites that have DIY instructions to make your own maternity clothes.  Mostly this is because I'm very cheap frugal and hate paying full price for something that I will only wear for a short time.  Also, because I live about an hour away from the nearest mall.

Lots of other bloggers have already compiled similar lists, and links that I had already saved on my browser popped up on these lists as well.  Here are a few links that I'm planning on using to make my own maternity wardrobe, as well as some of the "link roundups" that other bloggers have compiled.

Maternity Capris

Summer finally arrived in late August and continued until mid-September here in Sea-to-Sky country.  I was pretty much at a loss for summery bottoms to wear... no skirts, no capris, and only 2 pairs of yoga shorts that fit.  And I can't wear yoga shorts to my office job.

Maternity Sorbetto

I finally got a little bit of time to sew my very first maternity shirt (yay!).  I'm carrying pretty low so most of my pants no longer fit and I've had to make the switch to maternity bottoms.  I can still fit my longer casual t-shirts and tank tops, but am beginning to need some dressier tops for work.

In Desperate Need of Clothing!

Remember when you were in high school and you'd open your closet doors and say "UGH I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!!!"????  Well I'm having deja-vu now since I can't fit any of my non-jean bottoms except for one pair of brown dress pants, and my tops are all too short in the body now that my belly is growing out front...

19 weeks

Love Is In The Air (Part III)

[Wow, two posts in one day!]
The third and final wedding of 2011 that I was in was for my cousin's wedding this past weekend in Edmonton, AB.  This was the only wedding where all the bridesmaids had the same dress.

Photo credit: Marina Storme

We ♥ The East Coast

Travelling to the opposite side of the country warrants making a proper vacation out of it.  So we spent 10 days in Newfoundland, Cape Breton, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Here's a few shots my hubby took.  Enjoy!

Gros Morne National Park, NL

Love Is In The Air (Part II)

The jet-lag has almost worn off, but we are back home in Squamish after spending 10 days on Canada's beautiful East Coast.  We literally travelled across the entire country!  The only way it could've been further is if we lived in Tofino, BC (instead of Squamish) and were travelling to St John's, Newfoundland (instead of Corner Brook, NL).  But it was all worth it to see my beautiful, wonderful, amazing best friend marry her soul-mate!

The happy couple

Love Is In The Air (Part I)

My beloved sister-in-law got married over the weekend.
Again.
To the same man.
I should explain...

They were married two years ago in a civil ceremony in England, where they live, but renewed their vows near the bride's hometown in BC, Canada this past weekend.

Exciting News!

We are expecting!!!  I'm so happy to announce that I will be working on a Me-Made Maternity for the next few months.

Strike!

My hubby is playing in a slo-pitch ball tournament on Canada Day long weekend and his team entered the "costume division".  The theme is "Cavemen", so he asked me to make him a costume.  No problem.  So a few weeks ago I placed my very first online fabric order at Fabric.com, allowing several weeks for the package to arrive and for me to be able to sew the costume.  But THEN, Canada Post went on strike and locked out its workers... so now my precious package is likely somewhere stuck in customs or sitting in a mail-room somewhere (if it even made it past the US border).  Well then.

Longing For Sunshine

It has been a decidedly crappy spring here on the South Coast.  I know it typically rains here much much more than the Interior, but even longtime locals are saying the weather so far this spring is out of the ordinary.  So what better way to beat the dreary grey blahs than by getting creative with Polyvore!

Summertime Brights by sunshinegirl64 featuring formal tops

Baby O's Bathrobe

I thought I'd better post a bit more about the baby bathrobe I made for my friends' preemie daughter last month...  I used Simplicity 3711 and some fabric I'd found at a thrift store to make an adorable little bathrobe for baby O.  I ended up making size XS - 0-3 months, but since she was born at only 29 weeks it might be a little while before the little darling can fit it.  No matter - both her parents said they love the bathrobe, so I'm hoping it will get lots of use once she's big enough.

Moving Adventures 2011 and the Musings of a Consumer

Well, we're nearly finished unpacking everything in our new home in Squamish.  Thanks to a couple of our friends who helped N load everything into the house last Sunday while I was frolicking in Kelowna on a wine tour and stagette, ha ha!   They commented (and both N and I agree completely) that we have a lot of stuff!!!  To be fair, a lot of the boxes contained books - both of our combined textbooks from 4+ years of uni as well as just normal reading books.  And we have a lot of kitchen gadgets and small appliances (mixers, blenders, griddles, etc) but I like to cook and entertain at home.  It's so easy for hoarders to make excuses though, isn't it?

Kitchen disaster!

Champagne Birthday

Wow, I can't believe it's been a year since I've started this blog.  This past year has been filled with a lifetime of ups and downs, good times and bad.  I've learned how to cook a proper souffle, and how to make home-made ice cream; how to put in an invisible zipper, and improve my general sewing abilities; spent more time with my grandparents, and fallen in love with my darling husband all over again.  I'm looking forward to all the things this next year will bring.

Cheers!

Easter Greetings!

I am home in Saskatoon for a few days visiting my family here.  The weather has been really lovely: sunny (with a bit of wind) and warm temps...  It was 15C today - gorgeous!  I have eaten far too much food, drank far too much wine (and rye, ha!), and had countless hours of good, deep belly-laughter with my friends and family.

Enjoying the springtime prairie crocuses

La Latina Pin-Up Dress (Part II) and the Marine Pin-Up Dress

Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles!  I'm finished both of C's dresses!  We're headed into Vernon this weekend so I can do a final fitting with her and hem the bottoms but other than that - dishes are done dudes!

Here are a few shots of the finished La Latina Dress in my rapidly emptying house:

Front View

Garden Inspirations

Well friends, April is upon us bringing its showers to bring May flowers and all that jazz...  My house is now in complete and utter shambles as we are packing everything up and moving it to the BC coast in a few short weeks.  However, I can't help but start getting excited for my 2011 garden (in Zone 8 no less!  Eeep - just think of all the cool plants we will be able to grow!!!).  I've been scouring around online for some ideas and inspiration (while taking a break from packing boxes) and I found some really cool ideas.

La Latina Pin-Up Dress (Part I)

My friend C asked me to make her a couple of vintage style dresses to wear to work - think "sexy secretary".  I've been busy on the first dress this past week in between work, cleaning, socializing and procrastinating packing...  (We are moving to the coast in a few weeks - eek!).

I used Simplicity 2250 for the bodice, and am making a slim-fitting pencil skirt for the lower part of the dress.  I had some black polyester fabric kicking around in my stash with a red and white roses print on it - perfect for a sexy, retro feel.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough of it to make the wide straps that C requested so she could wear a normal bra with it, so I used a black cotton twill and then used scraps of the rose print to make piping on the outer edge of the straps.  I think it turned out beautifully!

C wanted the dress to be quite tight (especially in the skirt part) so I picked up some stretchy red ponti de roma knit fabric to bring out the red roses in the bodice.  As you can see from the photos, it's not a perfect match of reds, but it's the best I could do.  Hopefully she can wear a wide belt to help break it up a little bit...

The colours in this dress make me think of a sexy Latin pin-up from the 50's, or possibly ChaCha DiGregorio from Grease (she sure got a bad rap, didn't she?  lol) so I've sort of been calling it the La Latina...  I still need to finish this dress, complete the second dress for C, and pack up my house - all before April 15th.  Yikes!

Hello Polly!

This is a post for my grandmother who is learning to use the internet.  She is a quilter extraordinaire and made most of my clothes for me when I was young.  I wanted her to see my blog and see all the pics of what I've created (she lives 3 provinces away... dommage).

Granny and her 3 grandkids (plus one addition!) on my wedding day in 2008

In other news, my highschool pal Candace Lacina is lighting it up this year with her new album released on itunes, as well as her YouTube cover of Shontelle's "Say Hello To Goodbye" (which Ms Shontelle herself even tweeted about!!!).  Candace is an amazingly talented singer-songwriter based out of Calgary these days, and she has got to be one of the nicest, kindest, and funniest people I have ever met.  Enjoy!

Spring Wardrobe Challenge Underway!

Ahhh springtime!  Days are getting longer, people are walking around town in shorts paired with a puffy vest, dust is flying up off the road from vehicles, and I'm getting a sudden craving for pastel-hued clothing!  I made this office-appropriate dress based on the 9 to 5 dress from the Built By Wendy Dresses book (so awesome).  The book suggested making this dress out of an orange linen, but I ended up using a cheap pastel orange twill that I bought on clearance for $3/m.  I think the twill works alright, but in hindsight I should have not bothered with interfacing on the sleeve facings... it's a bit too stiff for my liking.

I pretty much followed the book exactly, except that I added 2 darts in the back to reduce some of the volume on either side of the zipper.  This is also the first time I've used an actual zipper foot to install an invisible zipper and it looks frigging fantastic!  The book also suggested making a belt out of the same fabric, but for now I've just styled it with a dark brown skinny belt that I already had.  I also ended up making belt loops to keep the belt  from floating randomly around my torso.

I'm still not 100% sure about the colour.  I really like orange a lot, but I think this shade might wash me out.  Luckily I get pretty dark in the summer (hooray for Spanish bloodlines!) so I think it will look better then.  Sorry the pics are kind of blurry... I guess the lighting wasn't too great today (too bright out).

I also finally got some photos of my finished Crepe dress...  It's been done for a few weeks - I swear! 

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, but as I said in an earlier post, I'm not sure if a sew-along is the right process for me...  I prefer to just keep on sewing once I'm in the groove and get the entire project finished!  I did a Pattern Review for the Crepe dress, and plan to make the dress again, but maybe with a few alterations.  I found the bodice to be a bit short for me (I have a long torso) and even though I made the second smallest size, I still had to alter the bust.  I think Colette patterns are meant for curvier gals, and sadly that is not me...