Welcome back!

Since starting this blog, I tend to have moments where I don’t post for a while due to my health and not having much sewing to share. I’ve been focused on exclusively sewing (with some smatterings of other things) since I began this blog. That changes now. This is no longer *just* a sewing blog and it no longer called Sew Pretty in Pink.

Welcome to Andie Wells Studio!

This space will include ALL my creative projects. During the pandemic, I returned to art as a creative outlet. It is a lot easier for me physically and mentally than sewing. My health has declined a lot since 2019 and I have needed to find other ways of fueling my need for creativity and help my mental state. Along with creativity, I am going to be making more informative/activist posts as well as posts that focus on disability and activism. For a long while, I’ve wanted to speak to that more and held back a lot of things since they were not focused on sewing. For all those reasons, I needed to revise this space and my social media spaces to be more inclusive of who I am.

I announced this on Instagram in October but was waiting until my website redesign was 100% complete. Sadly, I have not been able to complete that fully so I apologize for any broken links/errors or missing images. I am fixing them, but if you come across anything, please send me a message through my contact form.

So what have I been up to? A heck of a lot of art.

I have been doing a lot of watercolour and gouache paintings:

I’m really excited because I discovered a product that turns any surface into a watercolour paper surface so once I can get that, I can make watercolour paintings on canvases! I cannot wait to experiment with that!

Some of my art is related to sewing. I love painting watercolour versions of My Body Model croquis designs. Here is my Make 9 3 outfits for 2021.

Top is Sew Liberated Nest Sweatshirt and Seamwork Mel joggers. I actually have the fabric for that already and am really excited to make it. Knit projects are a little less labour intensive for me.

Bottom left is Muna and Broad Tarlee tee and Noice jeans

Bottom right is another Muna and Broad outfit: turtleneck Tarlee (I am not counting that as extra since I am not sure which view to make lol), Noice jeans from the above, and an pastel rainbow quilted Grainger Coat.

I have yet to find an appropriate lavender fabric for the Noice jeans, but I am on the hunt. I have regular denim for the first version and just need to get the hardware for it. 

I’m currently slowly working on this lux winter coat:

Pattern is Colette Albion since I wanted a fairly simple pattern to really make the embroidery pop.

Speaking of….

This is my winter coat so far. I haven’t started sewing it yet because… energy and I have been focused on making Christmas presents for family and friends. All snowflakes are freehand and I made each one unique. I used a light grey floss along with a sparkly floss. I’ll have to be careful with the sparkly floss since it can melt with the iron.

I’m underlining with flannel as the wool is a suiting weight and I am also lining it with thinsulate for warmth since Ottawa is a colder city than Toronto historically. Then the actual lining that will show is a gorgeous black and white floral satin. It will make for beautiful insides.

Embroidery is something I have been doing more of lately.

I made a few mushroom pins:

And I am learning crochet and getting back into knitting!

I’ve also been sculpting as well. Since I am just getting back into that, I don’t have much to share yet, but I did make these cute mushroom pendants!

I am still learning and perfecting techniques but eventually I will be launching a shop eventually. It will  be focused on art and accessories, like jewelry, bags, hats, etc.

In terms of my health, I am experiencing new symptoms that are affecting my GI system and causing me to not be able to eat intermittently. Since moving, I haven’t been able to get a family doctor set up here and have been managing it mainly on my own. I’ve been turned away from walk-in clinics because stomach issues are considered too complicated for most of them here. I did manage to get a referral through one to a Gastroenterologist so hopefully I will have some tests booked soon. 

My body changes make sewing difficult not to mention the reduced energy due to insufficient nutrition makes everything difficult. I have mainly focused on art because it means just sitting at a desk and painting. I’ve made my small office into a good space for me to do that without too much energy used. I also have anemia and diabetes so lack of nutrition has complicated both of those conditions. For diabetes, I’ve been able to go off the meds, but experience blood sugar lows a lot so I am finding that difficult to deal with. 

Losing weight is actually pretty bad for my joints and has made my dislocations and instability much worse. I’m at the point where I feel like a wheelchair would greatly improve the quality of my life and reduce pain significantly. I’ll be pursuing that when I get a new family doctor. 

Click here to see my TikTok channel! I mostly post timelapses of my art there since I am super camera shy unless it is improve comedy lol.

I believe those are all the updates I have today! I will be sharing a few things I have made since my last post in June. 

I am happy to have found a way to continue in this space and am feeling so much more comfortable with it. I’m glad you are joining me on my journey.

 

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