January 2018 – Adventures of Sweet Monday

One of my New Year’s resolution is to sew more clothes. The new year started off right because I sewed another dress! I started this project during the winter break. It started out as a dress for my daughter, but actually ended up being a shirt.

We were in Joann’s and she saw this pattern and asked me to make her this dress:

She asked me to make View D (the one the model on the envelope is wearing). She picked out a black knit fabric. It had speckles of white in it. It kind of looked like splatters of white paint. It was the perfect fabric for her dress.

Sewing this pattern started a little rough since it was my first time sewing with knit fabric. I had a little bit of difficulty cutting out the pattern pieces. There was so much stretch in the fabric, I had to make sure that it didn’t stretch out too much before cutting it. I just let it sit for a little bit before pinning the fabric to the pattern and then cutting it out. Luckily, it all turned out well and I was able to start sewing. Sewing the dress together was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Mostly because I finally purchased a walking foot and what a difference it made!

The cowl neck was easy to sew. The sleeves were also easy. I was happy with how everything was turning out until I got to the gathering at the bottom of the skirt. I tried gathering it the old fashioned way but I wasn’t having any luck. I was having difficulty because of the stretchy knit material for some reason. After that, I remembered that I have a gathering foot so I set out to use that. I have used it before without a problem, but this time around, I ran into a lot of problems. For one thing, it wasn’t working properly. So I spent a lot of time trying to fix the gathering foot. Eventually I gave up and decided just to sew the bottom without gathers. That didn’t work out too well either. So I told Sabrina she would have to settle for a long sleeved cowl shirt. She liked it. I even made made her a matching scrunchy for her hair. I was able to finish this project before she left to go back to London. But I promised her that I would make her a dress, just without gathers.

I used the same material and it turned out great. I pretty much sewed View B but with the tight sleeves not the bell sleeves.

Here’s how it turned out:

I did a test run of this dress and wore it to work. I was surprised to receive a lot of compliments on it, even from strangers. My friends were surprised that I sewed it. I guess I did a good job on this homemade dress.

I hope Sabrina likes it too. I’ll just have to wear it a few times first (wink, wink).

Today I am grateful for pretty dresses, creativity, sewing, compliments from strangers in the elevator and homemade dresses that pass off as store bought dresses.

I had my first Boodle Fight meal. I can’t believe that I have never engaged in the style of eating before, especially since I am Filipino. It was a great and delicious experience.

Boodle Fight is a Philippine military style of eating a meal. It’s a style of eating that celebrates camaraderie and brotherhood (or in our case, sisterhood). Banana leaves are laid out on the table (usually a long table) and food is served in a pile in the middle. No plates are used. You use the banana leaves that are on your side as your “plate”. You also don’t use utensils. You use your hands to eat which is called Kamayan. Kamay is the Filipino word for hand. Traditionally, Filipinos eat food with bare hands which is a a centuries old practice. It’s messy but fun.

So how did this Boodle Fight Night come to fruition? Well, every year, my friends and I get together for our birthdays. This year, we decided to do wine and game night which later turned into seafood night and eventually turned into a Boodle Fight night. As you can see, we added wine to our Boodle Fight.

We had king crab, shrimp and corn on the cob. We also added some roasted garlic to the pile. The sauce was delicious and even a little spicy.

There were only 5 of us. Boodle Fight is best when done with a big group of people. However, our little sisterhood of 5 women was perfect for this night. We had plenty of food and even some leftover shrimp and corn.

What a great way to celebrate camaraderie with your friends.

Today I am grateful for sisterhood, camaraderie and Boodle Fight Nights.