Women in Science Dress

It's no secret that I'm a crafty nerd. If you've been following this blog for a while, you've seen me make a bad passwords dress and a number of Harry Potter items, among other geeky stuff. I'm very happy to increase my crafty nerd cred with my latest creation, the Women in Science dress.

There's a long story behind how this dress came about, and it starts with #shirtgate. Someone had the brilliant idea to counter that unfortunate and sexist shirt with a positive women in science shirt. This idea soon became a Kickstarter project, which resulted in not only shirts (I'm very excited to be getting mine soon) but also the release of the fabric design on Spoonflower. The latter is how I got my hands on this awesome fabric.

I'm still can't recognize all of the women on this dress, but there are definitely some great highlights: Ada Lovelace, Lise Meitner, Marie Curie, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Hedy Lamarr (yes, that Hedy Lamarr), Mae Jemison, Grace Hopper, and even more. I need to find and carry around the key so I can point out the awesome lady scientists that I'm wearing.

For those of you interested in the crafty details, the pattern is Colette Moneta and the fabric is Spoonflower's performance pique. I really like how substantial this fabric is and how it isn't too drapey (a problem I'm having with the fabric in my other Moneta). That said, it was kind of a pain to sew with as my machine kept skipping stitches. The other downside is that there isn't a lot of vertical stretch to this fabric, meaning the final dress is rather short-waisted. Chalk this up to a learning experience. Also, thank goodness for wide belts.

Overall, I love this dress. I not only expect to get lots of wear out of it but also enlighten people on all of these amazing women scientists!

Handy

Now that I have free time again, I've been doing some improvements around the house. For example, last week I hung curtains in the front room and fixed the couch covers. The curtains are a nice addition, but it's the couch covers that I'm particularly proud of. This is because they previously looked like this or worse on a regular basis:

And now they look like this on a regular basis:

The difference is yard-long stripes of elastic that run behind the cushions, anchoring the cover in place. I sewed the elastic at the top of the cover, in the middle, and again at the bottom so it keeps a good hold on each cushion. So now when I get on and off the couch, the cover stays in place.

Using my crafting skills to fix a failing in a commercial object always makes me feel like a crafting genius. Add this to the fact that the couch covers might now actually protect our sofas from puppy abuse, means that I'm feeling pretty brilliant right now. Sewing skills for the win!

Hello!

It's been quiet on this blog for the last couple months as I've been working to finish up a giant project: a book! It has absolutely nothing to do with knitting, sewing, or crafting except that it has taken up a lot of crafting time in the last 18 months. Hopefully now that the proofs are in, I'll have a bit more time for fun.

That's not to say I haven't been crafting recently (more that I've been too busy to write about it). In the past few months, I've finished a few awesome projects. At the top of the awesome list is my Emily Capelet made from MadTosh.

Continuing in the theme of Ysolda patterns, I finished a Wee Envelope in Briar Rose yarn.

And then there was the adorable Poklon, who would be more adorable if I hadn't run out of yarn right at the end.

So this is a quick check-in to say that I'm here, I've been doing some knitting, and I'm looking forward to being back here more now that my giant book project is done!