Once More, with Feeling

I've been away awhile but I'm going to try to give blogging a fair(er) shake than I have in the past. I want to put down a few goals...hmm not goals. I'm sure there is a better word. I want to put down some wishes, aims or intentions in the hopes that investigating, exploring and dissecting them will help make the nebulous concepts more tangible. I believe, that if I have a solid baseline of intention to return to, however wide or blurry that baseline might be, I'll be able to stay true to the honest and creative sentiment from which this blog originated.

I want this to be a place where I can:

Create

I'd like to use this space to document current and future creative pursuits. I've delved into sewing my own clothing, cooking, knitting, drawing and I'm sure this list will grow with time. I'd like to keep track of the things that inspire my creative process as well as a home to document the projects that I undertake. You'll likely see posts about people I consider to be style icons, books I've enjoyed and even pins I've made.

Explore

I'm currently a Ph.D. candidate in the field of Infectious Diseases. I'd like this blog to be a place where I can branch out from the small niche I work in and explore other topics in the biological sciences. I want to be able to delve further into concepts I'm having trouble with or just find interesting. I'd also like this to be a place where I can document side experiments where I test new products or keep interesting findings that have no direct relevance to my current work.

Prepare

As I'm more than half-way through my graduate studies, I need to prepare for the next step, hopefully a productive career in Industry. I plan to keep note of books that I find helpful as well as links and productivity tools that I come across. I think keeping tabs on my progress on this front will help maintain my focus and ensure that I keep trucking along in the right direction.

Reflect & Meditate

I was lucky enough to participate in an 8 week Mindfulness Meditation course last year and it had an outsized impact on my clarity of thought and perspective on day-to-day life. I hope to use this blog as a way to motivate me to keep practicing mindfulness.

I may be loading too much expectation and ambition onto this small blog. Time will tell. If nothing else, the posts will allow me to practice organizing my thoughts and become accustomed to the trials of writing on a regular basis. I plan to tag future posts with the "intention" that I think fits it best. Feel free to help keep me honest.

Sewing for others

Since I took up sewing last January, I've tried to get as many projects under my belt as time has allowed. Unfortunately with all the different demands on my time and attention I haven't finished as many items as I would've liked. I did however manage to finish two tank shirts that I love and have put into heavy rotation. I'll document those in their own separate posts. In addition I've had two flops neither of which will see the light of day. They've gone into the fabric scrap pile awaiting the spark of inspiration that will transform them into something useful. Maybe a scrap quilt will someday be in my future or perhaps some redonkulous Josephesque coat of many colors.

With the minuscule amount of sewing experience I've accrued in less than a year, I'm now going to be brazen enough to try my hand at making nice things for others. Namely, I've promised my brother a series of pocket handkerchiefs and told my mother I'd make her a nice top. Because this will undoubtedly (and sadly already has) take for forever I'm going to call these Christmas gifts in the hopes that it will motivate me to get it together. Unfortunately I live many, many miles from my mother and will not be able to see her until Christmas. Thus I am flying blind with this make for her and I only have her bra band size to help me narrow down which pattern to pick and which size to cut. I've decided to go with the Washi dress pattern by Made-by-Rae. I think this will work well because there are a broad range of sizes in the same pattern which means I can use it for myself some day and it's easy enough for a beginner like me. In addition, it has a smocked back and no closure which will hopefully also make it more forgiving in terms of fit.

I've traced the pattern onto parchment paper and cut out all my pattern pieces. I've also purchased some elastic thread and some light weight interfacing. A few months ago I came across a shop in the neighborhood that normally sells cute home accessories, things like pillows, scented candles and the like. Well on this particular Saturday they were having a fabric remnant sale for all the fabric leftovers they had from pillow making. If you can believe it, the deal was - fill a bag with as much fabric as you can and you only pay $5!! I promptly filled up a baggie until it nearly burst at the seams :). In it was what I think is a soft linen cotton blend. I took it home and washed it and decided it would be perfect for my mom's top.

I love the large print and the combination of yellow, black and gray. The best part was that I had just enough of this remnant for the whole pattern.

The selvage edge has "exclusively for JO-ANN stores" on it so that solves the mystery of where it's from. More on this project as it progresses although that might be a long while!

Hello {sewing} world!

My name is Tory T. Cell and I've recently been bitten by the sewing bug. It was a funny thing. I found myself scouring an enormous amount of online clothing shops, fashion blogs and fashion related tv shows but constantly lamenting not being able to afford the things I saw. In addition it was hard for me to determine whether the prices I saw on clothing were even reasonable. I had no concept of construction quality or the value of the materials used. 

I decided to change all that by learning how to fabricate my own clothing. Mr. Cell very generously bought me my first sewing machine and all the necessary accoutrements for Christmas and I was over the moon! The initial excitement was slightly tempered by the money that quickly slipped away when I began purchasing patterns, fabric, tools and notions. By no means have I amassed a large collection, but I didn't take into consideration the start-up cost of a new hobby especially, one that requires such specialized tools. All that said, I've fallen in love with sewing and I shan't turn back now! 

During my day-life I'm a Ph.D. student working on some interesting science problems and now during my night-life I get to be a fashion designer (!!). It's really all in great fun and I hope to use this space to document my adventures. Full speed ahead!!