My Thoughts on my Summer Makes

 Hey Friends! I did more sewing this summer than I have in the past 2 years combined lol I wanted to make a video about my honest feelings about each make after the thrill of the newness has faded. 

Do I still love them? 

Do they need adjustments? 

Do I even want to wear them anymore??

Take a watch and let me know what you think in the comments!

xoxo,

Tasha

Fresh Start | From 2017 to 2018

Another year has flown by and I feel like I'm still trying to keep up lol

2017 was quite the year. I took some amazing trips, made some solid garments, lost loved ones, welcomed new family additions, met some awesome new people and reconnected with friends from the past. It was a whirlwind of adventure and I'm grateful for every moment and memory that I've walked out with.

Starting with my top sewing hits:

poncho \ off the shoulder \ anorak
romper \ polleras \ cold shoulder
plaid wrap \ kielo \ multicolor wrap

Another Clean Slate - from 2016 on to 2017

I want to have some closure for 2016 so I'm going to do a VERY quick overview so that I can move on with the future!

I made 17 garments for myself in 2016. Pretty lame considering I've made 25+ things in a year in the past. But I'll cut myself some slack because the reason for my sewing productivity was replaced with lots and lots of family time. And I LOVE my family so I'm not THAT disappointed.

Things I wear CONSTANTLY:

• Tweed Cropped Jacket


• Gray Hood Scarf


• Light Overcoat

 Most of the other things haven't been worn because they were made at the END of their appropriate seasons lol So we'll see this year how much use I make of them.
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Life Updates and this Jacket I made months ago... Simplicity 1688

*taps mic* Is anybody here?!?! -- Oh! hey! Nice to see that you stuck around lol

Life gets busy and things happen and reasons and stuff. You know the narrative. So let's skip all of that and talk about some of the things I missed! 3 milestones were hit while I was gone so we can have one big 'ol celebration for all of them :-)

1. My blog turned 3! June 9th marked 3 years of blogging and sometime here in July will mark 3 years of sewing! It still amazes me how this blog has connected me to so many interersting, exciting and inspiring people all over the world. And they like... know me too! It's crazy and awesome at the same time. This addicting hobby has given me skills and friends I never thought I'd have. It also gave me a closet full of fabric that my mom would've never thought I'd have either (but that's besides the point lol). Thank you to everyone that has been following my journey from the beginning and shoutout to everyone who just joined. I'm honored that you want to see what I have to say :-)

And thank you to the people who checked in on me while I've been MIA. <3

2. June 25th marked 5 YEARS since my last relaxer! Being natural has been a long hard road but it definitely gets easier.... but it kinda stays hard lol Ya'll know what I'm saying ;-) I was hoping to have waist-length hair by this time but that hasn't quite worked out with all of the unplanned set backs and my inconsistency in care. I'm trying to be more deliberate in keeping it healthy now so hopefully by this time next year, I'll be at waist-length :-)

my hair right now at full bra strap length

3. MY BIRTHDAYYYYYY! I turned 26 on July 10th! It was a quieter than usual celebration but I absolutely enjoyed it. I love being around my family and my friends make it even more special. I'm grateful to have made it to another year and I pray that I continue to grow in God's purpose for me. Shameless plug for my birthday wishlist on Amazon. I was able to get a lot of the things I wanted thanks to folks' generosity! There are a few sewing things on there that I'm still wanting. I hope to do like.. a birthday sewing haul at the end of this month. I'm so excited to share some of the things I got!

 Alrightyyyy now that we're all excited from celebrating lol There has been very little sewing going on around here lol. And this jacket ain't even a part of that group. lol I have a couple more pieces to put up here soon though so I'm not going to just disappear ;-)

I made this jacket, Simplicity 1688 to wear with my Easter dress. I really wanted something easy that didn't take a lot of fabric because I was stealing a yard (and some change) of my mom's fabric lol. I needed something that had yellow in it and the tweed she got from Hancock's more than a year ago was perfect. I cut a size 14 so that I could have a little bit of wearing ease.

3 Years Post Relaxer! & Future Hair Goals

I almost always miss my anniversary.

My natural hair anniversary!

Today marks 3 years since I've had a relaxer in my hair.

(which also means my birthday is in exactly 2 weeks... but that's neither here nor there lol)

Having natural hair brings SO many emotions.

Happy, frustrated, tired, free, beautiful, annoyed, and the list goes on lol

One of the main reasons I wanted to go natural was because I saw so many women whose hair grew to lengths I'd never seen before on the majority of colored women.

And here I am today having reached another milestone!

I have finally reached bra-strap-length (BSL) hair :-D

I know last year at this time I was only a few inches away but then I got a haircut with a salon I won't name lol and I thought that I wouldn't make it by my 3 yr ann. but I did!

Trial and Error... and Success

This past weekend, I vowed to start working with my sewing machine

so I did.

I decided that I would work with my Brother first just because I knew that all of it's parts were included. 

I'm also pretty tech savvy, so the fact that it's computerized played a role in my decision to work with this machine first.

My first step would be to thread some bobbins.

So as a young woman living in this generation,

instead of looking to the manual for instructions on how to thread bobbins,

I went to YouTube.

I found this sweet old lady by the name of Nadia who was using the same machine that I have and was showing her viewers how to thread bobbins as well as testing some of the stitching.

PERFECT.

I watched Sewing with Nadia one or two times and I decided I was ready.

*flips switch*

It was literally my first time actually turning the machine ON.

If you watch the video, the following pictures will make more sense but I will explain as I go along.

Confessions of a Newbie

I know you're probably thinking:

"This girl said she was gonna be sewing and I aint seen nothing YET!"

well... your thoughts would be completely valid. lol

And I'm not here to spill a bunch of excuses but since I did say I was going to share the journey,

I just wanted note a couple of mistakes that I've made already :-)