What a smashing, absolutely dashing spectacle

Another weekend, another opportunity to dress up — and inadvertently complete a Vintage Pledge make. I mean, it being a Vintage Pledge make was inadvertent; I only realized that the hat applied on my way home. Yay, planning. Handy, since it's #VPJuly and all. Scroll down if you're only here for the food clothes, because here be horses.

All I know about horse racing comes from Dick Francis mysteries and The Sting but I've always wanted to go to the racetrack, so I was happy to join in when a bunch of pals decided to go to the 157th running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine on Sunday.


I lucked out by getting this handsome lad to go with me. First stop: the Hats and Horseshoes Party where all the food and beverages were tasty but seriously overpriced. Also? There was croquet. Just like the Gatsby Party, right?

Why math is important: A 20s dress

I've pledged to make 2-3 things for my vintage pledge. One is this 20s dress gleaned from Loran's World's Art of the 20s dress challenge.

Update: Loran got it from The Midvale Cottage Post (specifically this post, but check out all the amazing 1920s stuff at that first link); I thought I had the original source can't believe I didn't click through. The pattern is from Ruth Wyeth Spears.


It's not a terribly useful dress, but it's oh so pretty. Chiffon. Floaty. I kept thinking this dress was familiar from somewhere...

Nine days a week: MMMay16 week 4

This week is a little long, yes? It feels like it kind of went to hell for me because in the middle of getting ready to leave for New York, I had to deal with an issue that wound up not being an issue but still wound up taking too much time because somebody didn't bother to tell me they weren't coming by after all thereby wasting said time and not letting me get on with all the stuff I was supposed to be getting on with. Plus I got a bit sick on the weekend. No UFOs finished, no new makes.

Sigh: MMMay16 week 3

Wow. So this week, I failed the "no-more-than-one-repeat-a-week" part of the challenge. Twice. First because I have been way too lazy to actually, you know, go outside my apartment — the deck is technically part of my apartment, even though it is outside. I've been rereading Robin McKinley books and some higher-class historical romances^* and didn't really get out of my pjs for three days. It is officially late Spring (people are calling it Summer already, but I'm not going to risk it) and I think it is finally time to take all my warm-weather clothes out of hibernation.

Once I finish that chapter.

Make up your mind, May: MMMay16 week 2

It's Spring in Ontario: one day slightly chilly, next day beautifully warm, then we plunge down to near-freezing with threats of snow and actual hail. Good times. Clothes were worn. It's halfway through Me Made May!

Eight Days a Week: MMM16 week 1

This year's MMM will be interesting because I'm not going into to work so I have no real reason to get out of my jammies other than to go outside and take pictures. Which, I'm hoping, will help get me out of my jammies. I've committed to wearing at least two me-made or refashioned items every day, with no more than one repeat per week, and make at least one item per week while finishing all my UFOs. This will be no problem, right? I'll be posting photos daily in the Flickr group and going into more detail on my weekly wrap-ups here. This week has eight days because for me, the week ends on Sunday. As always, I'm following Fat Mum Slim's photo prompts.

I've also been taking the opportunity to catch up, timey-wimey wise, on some old blog posts and I've linked to a bunch of them below. Really, my aim is to keep you from doing whatever it is you should be doing by taking you on a kind of wiki walk.

Urban weekending: Errandonnées #5-9

This past weekend was very urbany. It included shopping, a quasi-event, and brunch.

Errandonnée month means it's time to get my library card renewed. These days I've mostly been downloading ebooks, which is excellent for borrowing library books for the completely lazy because if you forget to pick them up or return them they just return themselves, no fine accruing. Alas, you still have to renew your card in person, so yesterday I set off up the road. It was one of those days were you feel that Spring is definitely about to happen; 17°C, sunny, and nary a curb snowbank in sight.

Bike, food, and charity: Errandonnée #4

Danielle has been going to the weekly charity lunch at the Palais Royale for a while and thanks to the errandonnée (and being on leave) I finally got off my duff and went. I even finished my Mathilde top for the occasion.



The Palais hosts this lunch every Wednesday, unless notified. For a minimum donation of $15, you get to eat good food in art deco splendour. It's quite stripped down: you pick up the food buffet style, there are no linens, and you bus your own table, but it's a good place to hang out with friends and I'll be back for sure.

It's fairly easy to ride to but I have to complain about the utter lack of bike parking, even though it's right on the Martin Goodman trail. We really shouldn't have to ask for it.



As I left, it started sprinkling rain, but I made it home before I got too wet. Rain, not snow! Exciting!

Errandonée tally
Social Call: Charity lunch at Palais Royale (7 km)

Total Mileage: 18.8 km/11.8 mi
Total Categories used: 4

Gracefully Saved: Errandonée #1

The Errandonée started on Friday, but I didn't get started until today. I celebrated by dragging the DC out of bed so we could catch an early table for brunch at Saving Grace. He was thrilled, so say the least.

First days, last days, and a casual skirt

Posted very timey-wimey more than a year later.


It's the first days of the new year, so we went to the last day of the last days of Pompeii exhibit at the ROM. Seemed fitting. I wore my first make of the new year: a tan denim Lekala spiral gore skirt. It's the second time I've made this skirt: scroll down to see more details but the tl;dr version is that... I like it, but it's too big in the waist. Again.

Finally, a full week of stuff I've made: MMM15 week 5

This week, MMM is winding down but the temperatures went up. A lot. One of my (male) students took one look at me on Tuesday and asked "why are all the girls wearing sundresses?" which amused me no end. I have a really warm classroom which gets full afternoon sunlight (and somewhat inefficient curtains) and only one fan, so I was worried I'd have to handle a lot of complaints, but it wasn't too bad -- just the usual grousers. Fortunately the temperatures are supposed to stay at around 23C for this coming last week of classes, which will be very pleasant.

Just not going to happen: MMM15 week 4

I think we can say I've kind of failed at the challenge -- if by fail we mean "Did not do exactly what I pledged to do." I a) spent another day not wearing anything me-made and b) didn't even glance at the Bookcase of Shame*, where rest my UFOs. It's getting to crunch time at school, and frankly I've been trying to do all the marking and planning and my downtime has been spent reading. At this point I'm hoping that I average out to two items per day over the month and I'm going to put off the decision on the Spring Steppes sweater until June.

I feel pretty good about this. The job must come first, and this is not my job.

Smirking my way through another week: MMM15 week 3

So... cardigans. I've now made four versions of the Swoon Patterns scarf-neck cardigan, and this week I managed to wear them all. Which is impressive considering one of them is for cold weather, two are for warmer weather, and one is decidedly evening-wear. I may need to take a wee break from that pattern for a while. But not from the cardigans. You can expect to see those a lot.

Also? Smirky resting face all the way.

In which PhysicsGirl nearly repeats OWOP : MMM15 week 2

So, it turns out that when I'm left to my non-planning devices, I basically grab the same thing out of the drawer. This nearly turned into Belcarra week. My fault for making 5 versions of the same top, I guess. This also marks the week where I technically failed the challenge.

This week is very short: MMM15 week 1

The weather for this first very abbreviated week has been absolutely beautiful. Which is not what I'm used to in MMM -- I even packed away the granddad pants and crocheted cardigans, which have been a staple for me. I've committed to wearing at least two me-made or refashioned items every day and finishing all my UFOs. I'll be posting photos daily in the Flickr group and going into more detail here. As usual, I'm following Fat Mum Slim's photo prompts, but since this year she's only giving the prompts weekly, I haven't been able to plan out all my locations in advance. I don't want to repeat locations, so this will be interesting.

Oh, and hey? There's a drinking game. Right on.^*

Lucky number thirteen, and there's an end: Errandonnées #12 - 13

I was not planning to be finished the Errandonnée yesterday. Today was warm, and I thought I would go out and wash my bike, which it desperately needs, and go to the library, but the lure of the jammies was too great and I actually sewed some stuff and ran some internal errands. So here are my final entries.

Warmer... warmer... oops! colder... warmer...: Errandonnées #5 - 8

This week, it was all one errand per day; in the past I would did individual daily posts, but I'm going to lump them all together.

This post is a bit picture-heavy. You're welcome.

Monday on the way home from school, I realized I had just enough time to go renew my library card. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was actually too warm to wear my earwarmers. Delightful!

A year in the life: 2014 retrospective

...sort of. I was going to do Gillian's 5 things roundup, but then I decided to steal Oonaballoona's collage idea and grey out the makes that didn't work out so well. And then I thought: since this blog isn't just about the stuff I make, usually, why not do an entire year in review? I've done some fun stuff this year, and I haven't gotten around to blogging it all yet, but this would be a good way of remembering where I went and what I did.

So that's what you're getting, with some reflections along the way, minus the pancakes. You can see all my makes at Crazy Stuff I Do; most of the event posts are In Progress^TM.

The biggest thing to celebrate is a year a successful cohabitation with the DC! I'm still not sure what I did to deserve him, and I'm very excited to announce that Lucy has stopped hissing at him. Plus? He brings me tea and does the dishes. Often. And unasked. He's all-around awesome and I'm a lucky lady.

Ahem. On with the remembrances. Do you need me to tell you it's probably going to be a long post?

It's time to Tweed!

The third annual-except-for-last-year-where-we-kept-the-Tweed-alive-with-the-Tweed-Rally is this Saturday! Be tweedy and join us!

Post by Tweed Ride Toronto.

Waves of history

Timey-wimey Tiramsisu.


The DC and I went to the ROM today. I'm supposed to be wearing a totally different dress, but that hasn't happened. Yet. Instead, I'm wearing a dress I made in June.

I mentioned I had planned to take part in the Sewaholic Belcarra sewalong; similarly, the Monthly Stitch had an indie pattern month sewalong which I was officially going to join because of prizes. The official part never took place, but I did do three of the challenges, mostly. My Gatsby dress was my quasi-Franken-Indie outfit, and I made up some New-To-Me Measure Twice Cut Once Mary knickers (although there's a fit issue that I'd like to sort out before I blog them). This Cake Tiramisu, made with the last of the mystery fabric I got from Fabricmart, would have fit either the New-To-Me or Dresses categories.