Why Sew?

Sometimes people will say things like,  "It's so great that you know how to make your own clothes!  You can save so much money!"

HA!  Not true.  Okay, so it could be true--you can buy cheap fabrics and cheap patterns and make cheap clothes, but like everything else in life, they would be, well, what you paid for--fabrics that don't hold up, patterns that don't fit right or wash well, and they would, above all, look terribly, horribly homemade.  And that's not "homemade" in a good way, like "you-can't-believe-I-MADE-this" or "handcrafted" homemade, but that homemade that looks like you scooped up whatever out of the remnants bin and ran over it with your sewing machine a few times--it can be spotted miles away--"You made this, didn't you?"  Besides, Target really does sell very inexpensive clothes.  It's hard to beat the sale racks.

Mmm... just looking at this makes me sleepy.

So why sew?  Sometimes, you just can't get what you want anywhere for any price.  A case in point: I love bedclothes.  Nice bedclothes.  Currently I drift off to sleep every night blissfully beneath one of Anthropologie's duvet covers, which is made of cotton, but no less luxurious for all that.  I believe in luxurious bedcovers--you will "wear" your bedclothes more than any other thing you own--granted you're unconscious for a lot of that, but still.  Also, your bedclothes will determine the decor of your entire bedroom.

So my fiance and I have been working very, very hard on our registry.  My mom called and asked me what I wanted on it the most, and I was a bit baffled to reply.  "Well--all of it."  We've visited stores, looked online, read reviews, hunted and hunted for the perfect everything.  I stressed about it becuase I wanted to register as if I was spending my own hard-earned money.  I wanted only to register for things we would love and get really excited about recieving.  And if you think about the amount of time and effort that goes into purchasing one ktichen implement, well, it might not be much, but it is something.  (Silicone pastry brush or bristles?!)  Now mulitply that by about two hundred--there are a lot of decisions to be made.  I wanted to be 100% satisfied with ALL of them.

He's so cute I can hardly STAND it. 

Let's just say that the fiance is a saint.  He puts up with me.

And I drew the line on the bedclothes issue.  We hunted and hunted, and at every turn I wanted to know, "What's that made out of!?"

I demand natural fibers.  It could be linen, cotton, or silk, didn't matter to me--but there was one thing I could not permit: polyester.  And every. bedclothes. set. from. Ralph. Lauren. to. Martha. Stewart. is. made. with. 100%. polyester!!! Auuughhh!  I refused to give in.  I refuse to sleep with my new husband for the first time under thermoplastics!  "I'll just make one!"   I rashly declared, well aware that if I bought silk and linen, we were unlikely to save any money.

So back to the saving money issue.  He liked a pattern, I liked plain silk, and the colors complimented each other, so we decided to make the duvet reversible--have your cake and eat it too!  The silk I picked out, miraculously, was only 16.99 a yard.  At sixty inches wide (a queen duvet is 88 x 86) I would need five yards--so 85.95 for one side.  Mike picked out a beautiful linen pattern that was 26.99 a yard (ouch!).  That totaled up to 134.95 for a grand total of 220.90 . . .  Plus I wanted extra fabric for a bedskirt, pillows...



The trick with stores like Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann (we bought our fabric at the latter) is never pay full price.  Jo-Ann home dec fabric was 40% off this week and I get their text coupons, so with an additional 15% from that, plus a pattern from McCalls for 10.99, the whole purchase rang up to just over 160$.  Score!



Perhaps I could have saved more and not bought a pattern.  After all, everything I wanted to make is basically giant squares.  But when you're cutting into 150 dollars worth of fabric, well, it's just nice to have someone or something to tell you that you're doing it right and not about to ruin your project.  I will update in forthcoming days to report on the progress of the Epic Duvet Cover.



One last thing: this apparently queen-sized down duvet is such a headache.  My wikipedia research tells me that it is actually NOT the proper size for a queen-size duvet.  It's actually the size of a full flat sheet--which is larger than a queen size duvet--considerably longer, presumably to tuck under the mattress.  I decided I would just make a normal-sized duvet and just make it fit.  It'll be extra-fluffy.

In other news, we celebrated a birthday with a made-from-scratch cake: devil's food with a raspberry filling.  I'm not much of a cake-baker; this was my first ever from scratch.  I give it about a B, I suppose.  I didn't care for the texture--it was very dense, not light and spongy and moist like I wanted.  BUT I'm already planning a graduation masterpiece, so stay tuned!

I forget what it's called, Murphy's Law or
Ockeghem's Razor: it says that cake batter
is always more delicious than
the finished product.
I'm afraid this was true. 

Slathered in devil's food icing
and topped with fresh raspberries. 

I saw this driving home the other day:  FUCHSIA LIMO!!!