Stitch n' Bitch...

In university I spent absolutely countless hours hanging out with my girlfriends. When I moved here to work after graduation, that came to a screeching stop. Funny how life gets in the way of friendships... you know, marriage, work, kids. There hardly seems a lot of time for socializing for the sake of itself. So now, that my kids are getting older, and that we've been living here longer, it is nice to finally begin to reclaim a part of that former existence and begin to just socialize with people again.

My friend Lisa and I have recently begun doing the occasional, and unashamedly luxurious, girls night out. Our families (kids and husbands included) often get together for brunch or dinner or the like, but lately, once in a blue moon Lisa and I will enlist the husbands to stay with the kids, and sneak out the door when no one is looking for a meal together, which, by the virtue of not requiring us to cut one another's meat or tell anyone to sit still, is both relaxing and fun.

So imagine my complete delight when Lisa decided to buy a sewing machine!!! This opened up a new and wonderful girl-only opportunity.... stitch n' bitch. Yes, we could take over my basement, set up our respective work stations, and sew until the wee hours whilst bitching about the woes of potty training, or early mornings, or the terrible selection at Fabricland, or the price of rice in China, or whatever really. She's had her machine for two weeks, and the first meeting of the official Stitch n' Bitch society was called to order last night. I know what you are thinking, can you really call it a society if it only includes two people. We thought of that. We enlisted my sister Renata to join us. Three people makes a quorum right?


Each of us had our own projects. Lisa was working on making a hooded towel dress for her adorable daughters, Renata (who is a Girl Guide leader) was working on a big camp poncho for herself on which she can sew on the copious amounts of crests she has, and me, I was sewing a couple mail organizers for my kitchen in an attempt to hide all the ugly mail (bills, cheques, coupons) that currently clutter my kitchen. Here's what it looked like. Please don't judge my housekeeping based on these photos.


Last night's big discovery was that not only is S&B fun, it is also useful. When you are stumped as to exactly what shape the hood of your project should be as there is insufficient instructions on that pinterest tutorial, there are two other brains to help out. When you are too lazy to measure for the correct placement of the pocket on your divider, you can whine until your sister offers to do it for you, there is someone to lend a hand. Plus it was fun. Very fun. We've decided that the next S&B night needs snacks and possibly margaritas.  Although, not sure how straight my seams will be with one or two of those under my belt.

Here are the final products:

These are my mail organizers. They work nicely in my kitchen and were really easy. I really wished I had my mum's fancy schmancy embroidery machine to make labels for it.  Check out the pattern here:

Mail Organizer by Ashley Johnston

Here is Renata modelling her campfire poncho. It's cute. She's cute. Look at that hat... get her smoking at least 2 packs a day and soon she will be just like Effie Jones (only my mum will get that reference but suffice it to say that Effie was a guide leader we both had at camp who was the camp cook- a tough old bird who looked like a dried apple, was rough around the edges, but had a huge heart.). Well, ok, it might be a while before you get there Ren. You've got some time.

Next up is Lisa's little hooded towel dress beach cover up. We were concerned about the head hole being too tiny, so we called in the the adult with the smallest melon in the world, Ethan. He's a good sport. What can I say. Didn't fit him. The instructions were think on this one, and I'm so impressed by the fact Lisa was able to do it from what she had. PS: Terry towel is messy. Haha! Really messy.

And we called it quits at midnight. Successful? I think so!

Happy trails- hope you are enjoying some sunshine!