Sewing Projects.

My mother has graciously lent me her old sewing machine, which I think was born before I was. And although it's finicky, it's been great to be able to try things out and practice.

(Here she is, with some sweet tomatoes from St. Lawrence Market that I ate that night).

I decided not to use commercial patterns, even though I've only ever made 2 items of clothing before. I made my own pattern using old dresses I've got. I learned a lot about what not to do, and I now understand that I should go back to using patterns and take a course in pattern making. I mean, the dresses worked out, but there are some biggie mistakes that will affect how I wear them. But all in all, I'm pretty happy with them considering that they're only my third and fourth sewing projects ever.

Here's the first dress: a taupe linen dress with a trim of brown rosettes. It's actually quite elegant and will look nice under a suit jacket. You'll also notice one of my newest companions, the Diana toy camera. I've been experimenting with it over the last few weeks and I really like it.




Here's dress number two: it's the same basic shape, although it's better built. It's navy, yellow and ivory, with a navy velvet trim. I'm quite pleased with it.



And in other news, Chris and I were wandering a few weeks ago and we happened upon Ministry of the Interior, a fantastic design store on Ossington. We went in because we'd seen that they have these amazing ceramic phonofones made by Tristan Zimmermann that we read about. They're meant to house your ipod buds, and the phonofone amplifies the sound like a speaker. It's absolutely beautiful and we want one really really bad. They're $500-550 and available in white and black, but I feel that the white is way better.



We also enjoyed these Banks In The Form Of Pigs, designed by Harry Allen. They're between $100-250 (I think).
But! We also discovered that they sell the Forget Me Knot rings that I wrote about a few weeks ago, and even though it was Chris' birthday, he bought the sweet ring for me and I just love it. Here's what it looks like:

Also, I told my mother that I painted my nails black and she told me she was grossed out. Aw, mom.