Fran Creates

Cushions

2011-08-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

I actually DID do some clothing remodeling like I said I would in my previous post, but didn't take pictures. I cut the bodice off a shirt-dress that didn't EVER fit right, hemmed it, gave it to the thrift store because maybe someone could use it as a shirt albeit more of a cropped style. Then I cut the button placket off the skirt that was left, sewed up a seam instead, put a zipper in the back, added side pockets and a waistband, and called it good. New stripey skirt: check! Get rid of a dress that never ever fit: check! I don't know if reusing the elastic from a pair of worn-out pajama pants counts, but did that too. In a new pair of pajama pants. Bright pink pajama pants! I had considered trying to alter a shirt, but decided it would be too much of a pain so I just gave it away. But, with all of this "make-do and mend" stuff in mind, I bought a skirt two sizes too big because it was A) pretty and B) $6.50 on sale. I will unpick the waistband and take the side seams in by about two inches and have a pretty coral and brown nubbly skirt for winter.

My friend Amanda pointed me to this blog post (warning: language) about altering and tailoring. I must say I wasn't very surprised, in retrospect, by the idea that People With Money have all their clothes custom tailored, but I WAS surprised (and a little shocked) that I hadn't really thought of it that way. I'm pretty sure I could teach myself some better alteration techniques and get more mileage out of my shopping that way, especially when one of my favorite brands has pants long enough but too big in the waist (I suppose I should be grateful for that but it's a PAIN IN THE NECK I TELL YOU).

Anyway. To the cushions part of this. I have my grandmother's cedar chest that was manufactured during WWII--it's a Lane and has a little card explaining that the metal latch and key normally installed in the cedar chest has been left out so all extra metal can go to the war effort. It has a nifty, optimistic sentence that says "when Victory is ours, please write to the Lane Co. for your key and replacement latch". I love it so much. My mom spent DAYS refinishing it after my grandma died, and when it was done, she felt very strongly that it should go to me. It is one of my treasures. Because it sits against the wall of my room, instead of in front of my bed (as would be ideal), I'm thinking of using it as a bench/sofa. In order to do that, I should make a cushion, right? I think I'd like a REALLY BIG floral or pretty stripe (in pink, of course); it shouldn't be too hard to do if I get some 3" or 4" foam, cover it with muslin, and make a removable cover in a heavy cotton. I'd probably need some piping and a heavy-duty zipper--if all goes as planned, it should only take a few hours to do everything.

Now. To find the perfect fabric, which we all know doesn't really exist. ha.

Make & Mend 2011

2011-06-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm participating! I'm not sure how to do something like this, because I've never done it before, but I figure it's worth a try. Besides, it will get me into the sewing room, right? That's the theory, anyway. ;)

Weird sizing at JC Penney

2010-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

So I ordered some stuff from Penney's last Wednesday night on their Thanksgiving sale. Normally, I'd probably go into the store and buy stuff, but these came in tall sizes so I got them online. Problems: they sent a large sweater instead of the medium I ordered, and the medium t-shirt I got is larger than my Eddie Bauer mediums. More problems: when I took them back to the catalog department, I discovered I can't get them in a smaller size in the talls. So now I'm faced with the possibility of either not having a light blue sweater, or of altering a sweater.

My life is so complicated.

The sweater alteration shouldn't be too bad, and I've finally come to grips with the idea that I will probably have to alter stuff to get it to fit right anyway, but MAN. I didn't expect to be swimming in mediums, and I know that this anomaly has nothing to do with weight loss. I guess they've revamped some sizing and that's ok, but it's frustrating. I guess I'll go ahead and order the medium tall and use one of my other sweaters as a template for the alteration. It shouldn't be too bad, right? I'll baste it first and try it on before committing to a shorter stitch. It's worth it to have the extra length...I hope.

Days 29 and 30

2010-11-30T20:02:00.000-08:00

I'll tell you what, it's hard to blog at work, and then it's hard to blog when you get home and don't turn on your computer OR you don't remember to blog until after you're almost asleep and have to be up in a few short hours. So, you know, I do feel a little like I should apologize, but I'm not out to make any big statement or anything with this, so I'm ok not apologizing. :)

If anything, this little experiment, focusing entirely on my creativity blog, has reminded me that I do have a lot of hobbies and genuine talents. That's pretty cool. The frustrating thing, though, is not knowing what to do with it all, besides not having time or money to pursue these hobbies as much as I want to. I take comfort in knowing that I have an aptitude for craft and a passion for learning--it helps keep me going when I'm discouraged and frustrated by it all.

In any case, I plan to remember this little blog of mine a little more from now on, and actually post pictures of things I've made or talk about things that have been on my mind. It's been fun. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in December!

Day 28

2010-11-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on a couple of things. I bought the most beautiful (to me, anyway) corduroy last year (see above!), intending to make a dress using Vogue 8411, but after reading several reviews on PatternReview.com, I decided that maybe corduroy may not be my best option for this dress even though I can see it in my mind. There are too many things I'd have to mess with around the neckline. I got some good inspiration from Boden, though, and plan to go through my patterns to see what I can use/alter/smoosh together. Thoughts, anyone?

Today, I worked out an arrangement of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" for my ward choir--it still needs some tweaking and a transition (I'm starting with the British version, to the tune of "I Saw a Mighty Angel Fly", and going into the American version for the third verse) but it's coming along pretty well. I am also within about 4 rows of finishing an afghan for a friend's baby and should have that totally done by the end of the week! I'm excited! Considering the baby was born in August! ha ha!

Anyway, I feel sufficiently motivated to cross a lot of things off my huge project list. It's a great feeling!

Days 26 and 27 part two

2010-11-27T20:47:00.000-08:00

I burned my thumb while getting pies out of the oven on Thanksgiving morning--the pot-holder slipped and I grabbed the oven rack with my bare thumb instead of the pot-holder. I got it on my ear pretty quickly (really, it works!) to cool it down enough to get the pies out, and then, as soon as I had the pies out of the way, I held it under cold running water until it was numb. Painfully numb. Almost unbearably numb. Because of that, I don't have two big blisters covering the pad of my thumb at lovely right angles; I have two big rough spots instead. I'm really glad I was near the sink and I did the ear trick (my dad picked that one up in Korea when he was in his 20s, and it really does work for some reason), and I'm really glad it didn't blister. If it HAD blistered up, I'd be almost useless to sew or knit or crochet.

One more thing to be thankful about. :)

Days 26 and 27

2010-11-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

Just an update, because my stomach is hurting and I need to find food soon or it will just get worse. Hooray for acid reflux...

I did a few mending things today, and I feel good about reducing that pile finally!

Gray pants
Cream-colored sweater
Blue pajama pants
Black and white striped skirt

So I've been productive, in between trying to figure out how to hook up my cable to my TV and my TV to my DVD/VCR which has proven impossible. I can get sound out of the DVD player, but no picture. Maddening. Dad and I know there's a way to hook it all up together, but can't figure it out. It would be easier if my TV has an S-Video slot, which it DOES NOT. ugh.

Well, small things to gripe about, really. I think tomorrow I'll do a muslin of at least the bodice of a dress that has a wide-ish neckline I'm concerned about. I downloaded a couple of hat patterns from Ravelry that I can't wait to try out, but I'm determined to finish at least one baby afghan before making hats for myself. If I go fast, I should have one done by tomorrow night.

Don't you hate it when you buy a lovely piece of fabric and have the perfect plans for it, and then it sits in a drawer for a couple of years and your plans change or you're no longer sure what to do with it? I have some really pretty wool plaids that have been haunting me for at least two years (one of them for close to 10...eep) and I can't decide if I want to do a skirt with kick pleats or an A-line or a pencil skirt or if it should be mid-calf or just below my knee or ankle-length, and I'm worried that I'll cut into that pretty fabric, sew something, and end up hating it. It's happened before, sadly, and so I sit on fabric for years and years because I'm afraid of hating it when it's sewn, and I won't have any extra to fix it or remake it. It drives me NUTS. And this is why I have so much fabric just sitting around in drawers and piles and boxes.

Sigh.

Day 25--Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

Today seems to be the day, so here goes. :)

I'm thankful for:
Parents who encourage, support, and love me
Sisters who are talented, loving, smart, and good
A sister-in-law who is one of the best mothers I've ever seen, BESIDES being talented, loving, smart, and good
A brother who works hard for his family and is one of my best friends
Cousins who are so inspiring
A living grandmother who I not only adore, but who also makes me want to be a better person
Deceased grandparents I can hardly wait to see again
Cats
Dogs
The sky, the glorious sunsets here, the stars, the clouds, the moon
Nature in general
Mountains
So many friends who are inspiring, whether they know it or not! Too many to list!
Amanda
Lisa
Emily
Julie
Julie
Mel
Becky/Rebecca
Jeremy and Lauren
Katie
Rob
Tiffany and Dave
Tina and Chad
Cindy and Brett
Hailey
Jenny
Amy
Janet
Mindi
Marilee
Lizzy and Spencer
Taylor and Drew
Erin
DeShawn
My talents
My faith
My mind
My body

I'm so grateful to be so blessed. It's pretty amazing!

Days 23 and 24

2010-11-24T22:26:00.000-08:00

This blogging daily thing is hard, especially when all my pictures are on my home computer and, when I get home, I don't always turn it on. Sigh. BUT. I refuse to think of this as failure! I absolutely refuse!

So, for today's (and yesterday's) post, I will give you a brief preview of something I've been thinking about for the last couple of days, and also pictures of the yarn I spun with a drop spindle and a spinning wheel.

Preview: On Monday, I was talking about my degree (BS in Integrated Studies, emphasizing History and Psychology, 2006) and how hard and fun it was. The person I was talking to stared at me when I said I'd been studying the history and psychology of clothing and appearance for over 20 years. That reaction is pretty standard, and it usually has to do with perceptions of my age, so I said "oh, I'm 35--older than I look--and I started reading about all this when I was 12 or 13." He replied, "it's not the age, it's that I feel sorry for you. You really spent over 20 years learning all that? WHY?!" I laughed it off ("Well, I can extrapolate the history of suspenders, and not many people can say THAT!" I told him...), but he really seemed appalled that someone would spend so much time and energy on something he thought was pointless. I've been formulating my thoughts about that since then; I hope they've percolated and gelled enough that they make sense when I try to write them down later.

Yarn:

Wheel in action! When I was a little girl, I thought that the yarn somehow went around the wheel. Turns out the wheel is just a gear to facilitate the spinning of the spindle and the twisting of the yarn. Cool.

Isn't it sad how I can't decide if I should caption things at the top or at the bottom? Maybe I just can't remember from post to post...

Lumpy yarn. Lumpy, lumpy (Rustic! Homespun!) yarn. Also, isn't that orange carpet just the best? This is the upstairs classroom at Heindselman's. It makes me happy. Also it makes me want to get rid of the useless old computer parts up there.

This handy thing is called a niddy-noddy. It's used to wind yarn into a figure-eight kind of configuration after it's spun and plied. (Look at that yellow chair! Sort of reminds me of the brown vinyl chairs in my grandparents' kitchen.)

Here you get a better idea of how the niddy-noddy is built. There's a rhythm to using it that's pretty fun, and it keeps your yarn nice and neat if you don't have a ball-winder or if you're selling it in hanks like this.

This is my finished hank of yarn. I figure it's not as pretty as someone more experienced would have spun it, but I'm quite proud of it. Besides, it'll make a great hat or a felted pot-holder that NOTHING would get through. It's warm and soft and I did the majority of the work myself. That's nothing to sneeze at! My instructor told me that someone said "once you've spun your first pound, you'll be an expert". Well, my first pound hasn't been spun all the way yet, and I'm probably terribly rusty, but the whole experience was so therapeutic that I'm going to save up for my own spinning wheel. The mental health benefits will more than make up for the cost, I think. It's a lovely craft and I want to learn and do so much more!

Days 21 and 22

2010-11-22T07:49:00.000-08:00

I realized yesterday that I could have written a blog on Saturday and scheduled it to post on Sunday, which is the day I decided not to turn my computer on. Oh well. :) I don't have access to my pictures on my work computer (I refuse to put much personal information on here at all) so I'm not even sure what to write about. I might do a list of things I want to make for my niblings for Christmas/birthdays, though. That's a good idea.

Charlotte--a pink stuffed horse with pink mane and tail for her birthday, and a doll with light brown hair and dark brown eyes for Christmas

Ila--a stuffed kitty for Christmas, not sure what to do for her birthday

Nicole--a hat for Christmas, and a doll for her birthday (in May)

Isaac--no idea yet, but he loves cats and machines

So there you go. Things to get busy on right away! I hope I have enough stuffing for everything...

Day 20

2010-11-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

Where was I when we left off? Oh yes. Rolags. And vomiting.

The third class, I had a pretty nice sack of rolags, but I'd been feeling queasy all day. I think I'd thrown up earlier at work or something, but I was doing ok--Sprite and soda crackers at my desk were helping, but when I got to Heindselman's, I knew something was very wrong. I learned something that day: much as I (and my stomach) might want to, I can't throw up in public. I can't. I TRIED, because my stomach sure wanted to rid itself of its contents, but I couldn't. So I figured I'd just ask where the bathroom was when I needed it. I made my way upstairs to our class and I really must have looked awful, because my classmates asked if I was ok. I explained a little what had been going on and apologized in advance if I had to leave suddenly. Which I had to, about 40 minutes in. Afterward, I felt MUCH better and was able to practice pretty well on a spinning wheel.

When I say "practice pretty well", I mean I didn't fall over or throw up again. You can see how awful my so-called yarn is, but I practiced and I got better!

This is the Schacht Ladybug model. Apparently Schacht makes some of the best spinning wheels in the world and I got to use this lightweight, collapsible, portable one. It's cute, but I ended up liking an all-wood one better. Again, you can see how lumpy my yarn is. I'll tell you, though, spinning is MIGHTY soothing, especially when one's stomach has been trying to kill oneself all day.

It's interesting--as soon as I really convince myself that it was TOTALLY FINE to not be really good at this right away, I immediately got better at it. Just letting go of that expectation let me focus on learning the craft and letting my body remember. It was pretty cool.

Next blog, I'll show you some much better yarn and a fun tool called a niddy-noddy. :)

Day 19

2010-11-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

I really should have been in bed an hour ago, but I've been too tired to sleep. I hate that game. Tonight's will truly be short because I'm going to try good old melatonin soon.

After letting all that wool dry, we had to card it. We were lent cards by our teacher and our next homework assignment was to get it all carded and made into rolags so we could spin it. We'd already been working with our drop spindles and a little bit with spinning wheels, but our teacher wanted us to learn the whole process from the beginning. The class we spun our rolags (our third time, I think), I was stricken with some weird stomach bug and looked like death, along with vomiting every hour or so. THAT was a fun class...I got to know the Heinselman's bathroom a little too well that night. Anyway, during our second class and during the week before our third class, we carded wool and made it into rolags.

Wool before carding. It's lumpy and you can still see plant matter in it. In the third picture, you can see how I changed my hand position to make it more comfortable. These cards were lovely to use, but it's still hard work. My hands hurt when I was done.

Wool during carding. You have to be careful not to load up the cards too much, or they won't work properly. You can see on the towel some of the plant matter that's come out as I've carded.

Oooo! Much less plant stuffs in this! It's almost ready to roll up. You kind of catch it with the other card, ease it off the teeth, and roll it up into a nice little bundle that's easy to spin. You can buy roving, basically long strips of carded wool or fiber, that's been processed by a mill or by someone much more experienced than I, and spin from that too.

Finished rolag. Not very pretty, but you can see the idea. I got better as I went along.

Day 18

2010-11-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

I remembered to blog before turning this off and going to bed! Yay!

Today will be pictures again. I thought I'd do some posts about the spinning class I took at Heindselman's in March, and I'll start off with what we had to do for our "homework"--picking and washing the wool. We were each given a grocery bag full of raw fleece from a sheep at the end of our first lesson, and we were to take it home, pick as much vegetation out by hand as we could, and then wash it. Picking out the plant stuff was a little icky at first, because it turns your hands positively black from the dirt the sheep picked up wandering around for months without a shower, and the natural lanolin of the fiber. It smelled a little, too, but my hands were soft after doing it and the dirt washed right off with no problem, probably because of the lanolin.

(I don't have any pictures of the raw wool, so I'll link here, but keep in mind that the wool I had was much dirtier than the picture at that link!)

After picking it, I had to wash it in hot water. The trick to washing raw fiber without felting it is to NOT AGITATE it. There are natural barbs on the individual hairs, and if you agitate it (sometimes called fulling), the barbs hook to each other. This is why you never wash your wool sweaters in the washer with the towels unless they've been pretreated somehow. I filled up my bathroom sink with hot water (the plug for the kitchen sink didn't work right), put some wool in, and GENTLY pressed down until it was saturated. I let it soak for a while, then came back, rinsed it, and filled up the sink again. I did this until the wool was almost white and then laid it out to dry.

First soaking. The water was darker than it looks here.

Second soaking.

Third soaking.

Last soaking.

Gently squeezed dry. You can see some of the vegetation still--it's nearly impossible to get it all out by hand-picking, so you figure most of the rest of it will come out as it's carded and spun.

When the wool was completely dry, which took a few days, I put it back in the grocery bag and took it to my next class, where we learned how to card it and make rolags.

Lumpily laid out and ready to dry.

Days 16 and 17 part 2

2010-11-17T20:45:00.000-08:00

I told you I'd talk about how I bagged the lining for Emily's wedding gown. I was so worried about doing a beautiful job that it literally took me weeks to cut the darn thing out after I'd altered the muslin, and when it came time to put the lining in, it was even worse. I mean, it's pretty easy to sew a lining to the neckline and zipper seam, but actually finishing a dress/coat without having ANY seams showing was daunting at best. I really wanted her dress to be as perfect as possible and I read a couple of tutorials (one of which may actually have been in a book) about the bagging technique and puzzled my way through it in my brain until the proverbial lightbulb clicked on and it suddenly made sense. Basically, you sew the completed lining and dress together as much as you can (neckline and down the zipper for this one), get it all wrong sides together, make a slit in one of the longer lining seams (I used the skirt back), reach in with your hand, pull the fabric out through the slit so it's right sides together, and stitch all your hems. Sounds easy, right? Making it make SENSE physically is the hard part.

Here's what it looked like as I was sewing it:

Big, tangled, off-white, silk mess, right?

But when I finished and fixed the sagging problem, it was beautiful and perfect. I hand-sewed the slit in the lining closed while I was at Emily's apartment to deliver it to her.

You can't really see the dress details in this particular picture, but trust me: Emily was gorgeous, and it wasn't just the dress. :) It was a privilege to sew it for her!

Days 16 and 17

2010-11-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was a weird day at work and I didn't do much when I got home after spending 45 minutes trying on jeans at Gap and running errands for another hour or so. Then I came home and did dishes and generally cleaned things up before playing a stupid time-wasting computer game that turned out to be very therapeutic.

I actually had a blog idea but by the time I remembered it, I'd already turned off my computer and really didn't want to turn it back on because my power supply is wonky. Oh well.

I'll do another post later tonight about how I figured out how to do the bag-lining technique, which is not just about lining bags. It's complicated to explain but I managed to make it make sense to my brain while finishing up my dear friend Emily's wedding gown last summer. It's one of those things I know how to do but would have a devil of a time teaching someone else to do because it's just that weird, but I'm glad I figured it out!

Day 15

2010-11-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

I didn't do anything creative today, but I DID change my bed to flannel sheets! And I DID go to Heindselman's, where I ran into one of my wildly creative friends. She's quite amazing and very talented, and I sometimes wish I were unemployed so I could spend my time finishing projects and practicing my spinning...which is actually a pipe dream. If I were unemployed right now I'd start going crazy after about a week because I would feel like such a burden on my family, not to mention the guilt at not being able to contribute to household expenses.

Quite honestly, today had a depressing start, and when I was finishing up my errands I realized that I'd been dreading going to work tomorrow. I'm glad I have a job, and there are aspects of it I really enjoy, but I can feel myself getting brain- and soul-sick there. If I didn't feel like I have to prove something every time I walk in that door, I'd be more creative in my clothing/shoes/accessories. As it is, I feel like I can't wear anything too far to the wrong side of conservative or I'll risk someone being annoyed by it. Colorful tights? Relegated to their drawer. Funky necklaces? Still in the jewelry box. Plaid shoes? On the closet floor, and don't even get me started about my shiny shoes or beaded cardigans! I'm so afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing and having it set something off that I've been lying pretty low. The most interesting thing I've worn lately was a long orange sleeveless cardigan over a long-sleeved orange t-shirt and gray plaid pants, and even in that I was subconsciously worried that someone wouldn't take me seriously enough even though I know my job better than the people who wrote the job description.

There's a part of me that wants to wear red shoes and striped socks and purple sweaters all the time, but I am, like I said, nervous about it. It's highly tempting to try to go back to retail, where at least I'd feel a little less weird about wearing striped tights.

It is hard to have the desire to create and to have it stifled, but maybe I'm just overreacting, which seems to be a theme this month. :)

Days 13 and 14

2010-11-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah. I missed yesterday. At the end of the day, after I'd turned off my computer, I realized I hadn't blogged anything like I'd wanted to, and then I was too tired to care. I don't think anyone's going to come after me for missing a day, but I kind of feel bad--the goal was to blog every day in November and I missed one.

Oh well, right? Not that big a deal. :)

Today I had wanted to make a Christmas tablecloth for my mom but the main fabric hasn't been preshrunk and I don't wash things on Sunday. I'll throw it in the wash first thing tomorrow and let it run while I do some errands. Since tomorrow is pay-day, I plan to hit up Heindselman's in Provo (ignore the negative reviews; it's a wonderful store!) to get some size 11 double-pointed knitting needles so I can make a hat from the chunky Wool-Ease I've had sitting around for a year. Since I only have a vague idea of what size I am anymore, I am also bracing to try on pants because I have a Gap groupon that must be used this week or I'll lose $25. I may or may not cruise to JoAnn and see what the new patterns are, but that's really contingent on how much money I can spend. Just because it's pay day doesn't mean I'll have a lot of play money.

Let's see. What to blog about today? Something easy, again. In 2006, I signed up to do a table for our Relief Society Christmas party. I have quite a few music boxes that hadn't been displayed for a while, and I used my mom's Christmas dishes and napkins and tablecloth. I used to work for San Francisco Music Box Co., which is WHY I have so many music boxes, and when the store closed I took home several plastic risers we used for displays and some random bits and pieces, including some pine bough picks. I used a riser under the main water globe and disguised it with the picks. Two of my favorite Santa figures/music boxes EVER were on either side right on the table. I used some Christmas bead garlands around the picks to make it more festive. It was so much fun! Someday, when I have my own house, I would love to go all out for Christmas like that. I have so much Christmas stuff...well, it's not THAT much, really, but I have a lot of ornaments and tinsel and other things. I don't let myself buy more unless it's really pretty or unusual. I ask myself, "will I regret not buying this someday?" and if the answer is "yes", I buy it. Case in point: last year, Target had the CUTEST penguin melamine dishes for Christmas, and I didn't get them. I have regretted it so much that I'm going to splurge on this year's penguin option, even though it's not quite as cute as last year's. This is also why I have a dozen bright pink ice skate Christmas ornaments, trimmed in white faux fur and white pompoms...

Anyway...ha ha. Pictures!

Day 12

2010-11-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

I've been studying for a history test for the last couple of hours and my head is full of Christine de Pizan, Magellan, Cortes, Pizarro. I discovered an easy way to remember which guy conquered which South American nation: CorteZZ AZZtec MexZZico vs. PPIIzaro IInca PPeru. Doubt I'll ever forget that now...ha.

Let me look through some pictures...

Aha! Back in February, I heard through Yellow Bird Fabrics blog about Anne Barge coming to Alta Moda Bridal in Salt Lake for a trunk show and lecture. I know that's a lot of links but you will not regret clicking on them if you like pretty things.

I asked my lovely mother if she wanted to go with me (Laresa couldn't or something, I don't remember why) and we headed up to the Salt Lake City Library for the lecture. I was surrounded by fashion students from SLCC and at least one of the owners of Alta Moda, so I felt a little intimidated. I think mom and I were the only civilians there! I got to take pictures of the four gowns Anne had chosen to display, and I got to meet her. I felt like a GIANT because I had at least 6 inches on her, but she was so gracious and friendly and put us all at ease. She talked about how she became a bridal designer (she was at Priscilla of Boston sketching the dresses on display and was offered a job as an assistant! The ODDS!) and how much she loves pretty things and wonderful fabric. Anne is one of the designers who will gladly alter a design to make it wearable for an LDS bride (you can see some examples on the Alta Moda website), and she sources her own fabrics. She works with mills in India that create fabric just for her. Actually, they'll send out samples to all their clients, and the client who likes it most or chooses it first is the one the rest of the fabric goes to. It was a really wonderful day and I learned so much! Thanks for going with me, mom. :)

(several) Pictures:

Close up of the fabric of the dress on the left--this was made in India. If you look closely and if the quality is good enough, you can see that the texture is applied fabric, almost like applique. Gorgeous.

Bodice detail.

Skirt detail.

The backs of the four dresses. We sat right up front!

Skirt applique detail.

Gorgeous bodice detail--the beads are applied with chain stitch right onto the bodice--painstaking and beautiful work.


It looks like rivets, but it's gunmetal or bronze colored sequins. The ribbing in the fabric is a custom weave for Anne Barge. There is an example of this dress for LDS brides on the Alta Moda website.

I think all these styles are still on the Anne Barge website as they're from her Spring/Fall 2010 collection. Her prices are relatively high because the quality of the gowns is also high (I've seen a lot of wedding gowns in my time, and these are some of the highest quality) and she uses a lot of silk. I told her how grateful I was to see something different from the glorified prom dresses around here. Don't get me wrong--the glorified prom dresses are (mostly) pretty and if you want one, I won't stop you!--but it was refreshing to see something more mature and elegant for a change.

Day 11

2010-11-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking all day about my grandfathers, cousins, and friends who have served and are serving in the military. I know "thank you" doesn't quite cut it, but it's all I can say because there are no words for my gratitude.

I was going to do another picture post, but decided instead to talk about my predilection for picking up rocks. I think it started with my granddad (my dad's father) who also picked up rocks. In fact, I think he gave me one of my first rocks--a good-sized chunk of obsidian. I remember going to places like Bryce Canyon and wanting all the rocks in the gift shop when I was little. If it's a pretty color or an interesting shape, my eye is immediately drawn toward it. This is why there is a rock from somewhere outside St. George in my car, a piece of possible pink quartz on my desk, several rocks on my windowsill, and a box of them in storage. Another thing I just remembered is taking a white rock from a neighbor's flowerbed when I was 6 or 7. They lived across the street from us in a trailer and had white rocks around a tree or something, and I thought no one would mind. My parents found out and told me I shouldn't take rocks from other people, and I catch myself picking rocks off the sidewalk and putting them back in flowerbeds even now. I don't, however, hesitate to pick up rocks that are in parking lots or on trails unless I know it will disturb something. I rarely come home from an adventure without a rock in my pocket.

Can I tell you what they all are? Nope. Do I remember where they all came from? Not a chance. Do I want to give them away? Nope, not a chance. I could get all poetic about the whys, but let it suffice that I just like rocks, smooth from the river, broken off a mountainside, or faceted and polished.

I guess I figure this has to do with creativity because I notice texture, shape, color, and weight in a lot of things. I like to touch things, and that includes rocks. :)

Day 10

2010-11-10T22:22:00.000-08:00

Finally fixed my lamp. My fingers are sore, I'm tired, and I'm grumpy about it, but I'm glad I finally fixed it. I had to reconnect the wires in the socket, but I couldn't get the new socket off. At some point yesterday it must have gotten bent and as I was trying to take it off, it broke. I ended up cutting the wire since I couldn't get inside to the switch any other way. After another 45 minutes, it's ready to go. For now. The rod inside it has mysterious rust so that'll have to be replaced eventually. Right now is not that time. At all. I wouldn't be surprised if the darn thing fell over and broke all on its own.

Stupid favorite lamp...

Remember how I broke my mom's water globe? Here is where I'll probably get a replacement globe.

So I have a frustrating story and a link. I think that's good for today, especially since I said I was going to bed two hours ago and I'm obviously not nestled anywhere but at my desk until this gets published.

Done. Good night.

Day 9

2010-11-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to fix my favorite lamp--I went out to Lowe's and got a replacement socket and I've been trying to screw the darn thing on for the last hour. Part of the interior of the lamp has rusted somehow and it's giving me all KINDS of grief. So this post is going to be a short post of intense frustration.

The end.

Day 8

2010-11-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

Today has been focused on office work (for which I get paid) and housework (for which I do not get paid). I didn't do much of anything when I got home from work but chores; my usual Monday nights, I go to bed early because I work in the temple on Tuesday mornings, but the temple is closed for its semi-annual maintenance until November 23. Because I don't have to wake up at 3:45 tomorrow morning I feel a little restless and wrong right now. Maybe that's why I've kept so busy since work!

I left work 5 minutes early and as soon as I got home I started some laundry, heated up dinner (leftover pizza from Friday night), did some dishes, scooped the kitty litter, practiced the piano for Sunday, ate dinner, cleaned up the kitchen (mostly), knitted, figured out how to rearrange the furniture in my room, played with the cats, had my dad help me find out which part of my favorite lamp needs to be replaced, and now I'm blogging. Busy day!

About the lamp--a couple of years ago, one of the cats knocked it off my nightstand and the switch hasn't worked properly since then. I have to jiggle it to keep it on, and tonight we took it apart and figured out that it's the switch itself that needs to be replaced. Once I get a new switch (this is the entire socket, but all I need is the internal switch), it'll be easy enough to reconnect the wires and put it all back together. I'm really glad it's an easy fix because I would be very sad if the lamp couldn't be repaired.

Funny, I've always been curious about how things work, and now I realize that my curiosity more often than not has led to developing a skill. I feel confident I can repair a lot of things if I set my mind to it, and that's pretty cool.

Day 7

2010-11-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

I got all productive today and decided to fix a couple of water globes that had floaties in the water. One of them is a Peanuts one that is my mom's and the other one is a carousel horse of mine and I thought it would be a good Sunday afternoon project. I worked for San Francisco Music Box Co. several years ago and learned how to fix all kinds of music boxes there so I figured it would be like riding a bike...which it was, after I broke one of the globes and ended up with glitter and water all over me and glitter, water, and glass in the sink, because I forgot that pliers are an essential tool for taking a figurine/plug out of a water globe. More about this fun adventure later; I'm quite frankly too tired to think about it anymore even though it was eventually very successful. Also, my hands hurt from dealing with pliers and silicone sealant. Oooo! A teaser!

Today I will just talk about a set of jewelry I made a few years ago. The cabochons are Dry Creek turquoise which, as far as I know, is only found in one area in Nevada. My granddad gave them to me a couple of years before he died and I made a pendant and a ring to set them in when I took a jewelry class. I later retook the class (learned a lot more from a much better teacher the second time around) and remade the pendant. The ring was made using the lost wax casting technique and the pendant was soldered. I wore them to my granddad's funeral in 2005; I think he'd have liked what I did and although it's definitely not perfect, I'm happy when I wear them and that's what matters.

Day 6

2010-11-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

My stomach has been bugging me for the last couple of hours (it's as if my stomach is chewing on my esophagus, which is just about as pleasant as it sounds), and I accidentally just drank some sour milk (I don't routinely sniff before I pour because milk doesn't hang around here long enough to go bad), so I think today's post will just be pictures and a description of the current state of "my" sewing room. Actually, I share it with my mom and sister, but they will both tell you my stuff takes up at least 80% of all the space in there.

Originally, this room was our playroom, but then dad decided to install counters and cupboards so we'd have a place to do homework and other projects. I don't think it got much use as a study room before he made it his office when he worked from home. The pegboard above the sewing machine was my dad's (he has a MUCH BIGGER one in his shed now). It's such a handy place to hang things! I can't imagine a sewing room without one at this point. Three racks of thread, an old lamp we all love, a pile of magazines to go through, my mom's (her grandmother's) sewing box, fabric yardage, a couple of pairs of pants to alter, some cut-out shirts for my brother, and some REALLY BRIGHT satin my grandmother saved from the dump 50 years ago. I have no idea what to do with the satin but it might be fun to use as a quilt back or binding or something. It's just so bright! I think it's acetate, and I'm fine with it softening up and losing some shine when it's washed. The Amazon box in the corner? It's there for the cats to sleep in when they want to keep someone company. We're nothing if not good hosts...

Mostly my stuff, here. The chest of drawers is full of fabric yardage (I mean FULL) which is why there is a neat stack of fabric on the cutting surface. The stuff on top of the magazines is reference books that didn't fit anywhere else, stencils, and a couple of issues of Dwell. The magazines you see are 10 years of back issues of Victoria before they became defunct and then came back. The colorful magazines are back issues of House and Garden. To their right are some books and pamphlets. The plastic bins have trim, ribbon, fat quarters, and zippers in them. The boxes on the chest of drawers are all my patterns. The ivory sewing box is mine, as well as the little portable kit on top of it. I keep a sweater in the sewing room on the back of a chair for when it's chilly, but mom commandeered the chair and I haven't put the sweater anywhere else yet. The plastic drawers have craft supplies of various sorts in them, including about 30 long skinny hot glue sticks I bought 10 years ago and haven't used up yet. You can see our little sleeve board that was made in West Germany (telling you how old it is) and was given to us by a friend who didn't know what else to do with it. It's been very useful! You can also see a couple of bolts of fabric on rolls. One of the rolls is a beautiful dark pink silk I bought when I was engaged and intended to use as part of my wedding dress (still do, in fact), and the other is a red-green iridescent taffeta I bought because it was pretty.

My dad built the platform the cutting table (an old desk/conference table) sits on and it's been really handy for storage. As you can see, there is plenty of room there for my sister's fabric (in the pink drawer unit), about half my fabric (scraps in the boxes you can sort of see on the left), and various craft containers, as well as bolts of muslin and interfacing and possibly some batting behind everything. I don't remember everything that's under there right now. Branwyn was in the room being a ginormous pretty princess...as usual.

It's not the tidiest sewing room in the world, and I really need to actually SEW things out of all that fabric, but it's neater than some I've seen and worked in and it has a TV mounted on a wall arm, as well as all my DVDs. It's a happy place in many ways and I'm incredibly grateful we have the space for a room just for sewing. We're pretty lucky!

Day 5

2010-11-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

I had to dig through my archives to find the last time I talked about the afghans I made for my niece and nephew. Kind of sad that I posted about making them but can't remember posting about finishing them, and I didn't include pictures of the toads with their "yarn blankets".

This post, I have decreed, will be just pictures of a couple of things I've actually finished, instead of the pictures of "my" sewing room I took tonight, which would just frustrate and irritate me.

So.

Here we are! They chose the yarn and the basic patterns themselves. I got creative with the stripes and borders.

This is The Lad's finished afghan. I mailed it to him something like a year ago, and he loved it. He declared that it was big enough to cover all three of his little sisters, and has since said that it keeps monsters and bad guys away at night. I am quite pleased about this. It's fun making something someone you love will love. I hope he takes it to college with him. :)

He really did choose all those colors himself. I asked if he was sure, but reminded him that I would do whatever he wanted. He said he was sure, even about the gray. My sister helped me put it all together in a more or less aesthetic way and my quilt group really loved it. I bought more of the light green yarn and decided to add another stripe in light blue before finishing with a border of orange and rainbow. This was the first time I'd done a border so some of the stitches came out weird, but who's going to care? Not me!

This is spider-loving four-year-old Charlotte's afghan. Her favorite color is pink and she loves stripes, so this was just as fun, if not as colorful, as Isaac's, and I think she loves hers just as much as he loves his. My sister (who went with us to the "yarn store") said that Charlotte went right for that variegated yarn and didn't want anything else. She helped her choose the off-white to make stripes. My parents were able to pack it in a suitcase to hand-deliver in February when they went for a short visit.

Of course, I had to include one with Branwyn and Cassidy checking it out and giving it their approval... The finished product made the tediousness of sewing in all those ends, worth it.

Day 4

2010-11-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well, last night got away from me and I didn't turn on my computer and peacefully blog like I thought I would when I got home from work. Here's how it broke down:

Thursday night
5:00--think I'm leaving work but then a private client of my boss comes in for an appointment with him at 5.
5:20--finally leave the office after boss is 20 minutes late from a meeting.
5:35--arrive at home.
5:37--dad tells me he's going over to the church to help with a Relief Society activity I had decided I didn't have time to attend.
5:38--figure I might as well go if my dad is going to be helping.
5:39--scoop two litter boxes.
5:45--think about what to wear as I vacuum the basement.

6:15--finish vacuuming, think about showering because vacuuming got my heart-rate up, change my mind.
6:16--pull out my black sequined skirt (I didn't make this one because it was cheaper to buy it), hold my breath and cross my fingers that it fits, debate shaving my legs and then figure no one will notice if I just wear nylons.
6:27--finish getting dressed after trying on two different tops and going with the coral cardigan instead of the purple satin blouse, decide to wear flats since I wore heels Wednesday night.
6:27:30--put on makeup.
6:35--finish makeup, close blinds and curtains, make sure cats are fed, lock the doors, turn on the outside .lights, check the caller ID on the phone, grab my keys, drive to the church which is 2 suburban blocks away.
6:40--get to the church, have a WONDERFUL time, eat a WONDERFUL meal, talk so some WONDERFUL people, get several compliments on my skirt, be grateful for such a great ward and the chance to wear something sparkly two days in a row.
9:30--drive a friend home, say hi to her kids, compliment her house with "it looks like a family lives here!"
9:40--get to my own house, say hello to my sister, think about doing dishes, do laundry instead, process some bad news about someone else.
10:10--get laundry out of washer, hang it to dry in my room (easier than letting it wrinkle sitting in the dryer overnight).
10:20--have prayer with dad and sister, wash face, brush teeth.
10:40--clean scarves off my folding screen, dig out two other sets of fabric panels for it, get it ready for a friend to borrow this weekend.
10:57--realize it's no use booting three of the four cats off my bed and settle in to (finally) sleep.
Friday morning
12:04 AM--wake up to let Gidget out.
2:47 AM--wake up to let Zelda out
5:20 AM--wake up to let Branwyn out and Cassidy in
6:40 AM--actually get out of bed

So, you see, nothing got blogged. And there is nothing in this blog that deals directly with creativity...except that I made the fabric panels for my screen! It came with boring white, and I lived in a basement bedroom when I got it for my birthday and wanted it to be colorful. I took some measurements, calculated the yardage I needed, and made three other sets of panels. Right now, the screen is white because my bedroom is light periwinkle with bright pink curtains and the panels I'd made to match the other bedroom don't really match this one. One of these days, I'll find some really great graphic fabric in pink or yellow or black and make more panels. That would be fun. It's fun to have a piece of furniture that is easily customizable!

PS: We have four cats. The smallest (Gidget) is 10 pounds. Brannie, the biggest, is at least 14. They are very spoiled and very loved.

Day 3

2010-11-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

I'm getting this in just under the wire--it's been a busy day and I should be in bed, but I'm determined to post something every day, even if it barely relates to the subject of creativity or craft.

Tonight I went to the Lighted Candle Society's annual awards banquet at the Little America with my dad because my dad is friends with two members of the board of trustees. The invite said semi-formal, and while I'm always a little unnerved by the loose interpretation of the term, I decided nevertheless to up my personal ante and wear something shiny: a black lace dress with big pink sparkly clip-on earrings that were my grandmother's.

I made the dress 8 years ago for a conference-type thing in San Francisco, which is where this post ties into the creativity theme of the blog. Granted, 8 years ago I was a little thinner, so the dress is a LITTLE too short on me now (thank goodness I was wearing a black slip and kept my legs under the table the whole night!) but it's still pretty and I think I have enough leftover lace to add to the hem without it being obvious.

I wish I could remember the pattern number. I am pretty sure it's a New Look pattern, and I'll try to get a scan of it or something to show you what it looks like. It was a pretty easy dress to make, with a cross-over v-neckline, an empire waist, and 3/4 length sleeves. For the lace one, I cut the neckline pieces, sleeves, and skirt so the hems all fell on the scalloped part of the lace. I made a bias-cut dress out of a pinkish-purple iridescent taffeta from a Vogue pattern of my sister's to wear underneath it as a lining.

It's a great dress, despite the length issue, and even if I don't have enough of that lace anymore I'm sure I can find some that matches closely enough and call it a design element instead of a stop-gap alteration... One of the women ushering the event caught me as I was going in to dinner and complimented me on my dress. She said it was not only appropriate, but also just a little sexy, because at first glance the lining looks almost nude. I laughed and said I hadn't chosen the lining for that purpose, but because I thought the fabric was pretty. She said "oh, don't apologize! I think it's great--I love your style!" I told her how I'd made it, and she said she would have to try something like it herself.

I felt completely appropriate and confident and really enjoyed my evening, not to mention the excellent salmon and fabulous chocolate fudge cake. It felt good to have a reason to wear that dress again!

Day 2

2010-11-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

I have no plans today. To do anything but finish putting away these files, go home, get on the bike for a bit, and shower.

I HAVE been working on a couple of baby afghans for some friends, though. I made it a goal about a year ago (possibly more) to have something in my hands whenever I watch TV. I don't watch much TV but I do enjoy a few shows with my family, so when those are on or when we fire up the DVR, I'm knitting or crocheting. Nothing big, but knitting a million washcloths has certainly helped my tension, and getting back into the crocheting thing has also been helpful.

I know this is short--my brain is shot and I'm tired--but I also wanted to apologize in advance (to my two readers) if I repeat myself here. I'll try to go back and read older posts so I don't have repeats, but I guarantee nothing!

Off to the file room, and then home. I hope to finish at least one baby afghan this week and I'll post pictures and relevant links when I'm done!

Welcome to NaBloPoMo!

2010-11-01T12:35:00.001-07:00

So I'm attempting a two-fold mission here:

1. Start blogging again because I sure as heck don't write anything in my journal more than once every couple of weeks
and
2. Start blogging here in the hope that it will motivate me to actually DO something with the free time I have for the next couple of months and the scads of raw materials hanging around my house.

Today, though, I will write a list of all the stuff I've done for my current job and possibly apply for different jobs. I am intensely frustrated here when I let myself think about it for too long, but there are aspects about this place I really do enjoy. Hard to find a balance today, though.

Really hard.

What if...

2010-08-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

What if I made wool felt hoods and my own hat blocks and proceeded to form my own miniature hats in various colors? And then proceeded to sell the undecorated hats on Etsy or eBay for others to decorate?

Would that make me insane or brilliant?

I have no idea (I'd probably vote "insane"), but I really really enjoy doing stuff like that so I might as well give it a shot, right? Granted, finding colored fiber for the felt could be a little tricky, but it's really so much easier to shape a hat on a hat block if it's already sort of in hat form instead of a flat piece of felt. This I have learned from my very limited experience.

What about TINY hats? Like 1:12 scale? PURE INSANITY. But wouldn't it be fun to curl tiny feathers for tiny hats? Yes. Yes it would. If you're insane like I apparently am.

Motivation, where art thou?

2010-08-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

So I finished that stupid dress and the waistline is too high. Bleh. I mean, it's a cute dress (I love the print) but if I'm constantly tugging it down so it doesn't scream "LOOK AT MY BOSOMS", it needs to be something else. Am I in the mood to remake the bodice? No. I spent WAY too much time doing it the first time. Would it be a cute summer skirt? Sure. I'd just have to add a basic waistband and cut a few inches off the hem. Maybe add some strategically placed beads or sequins to the butterfly wings just for fun, maybe in different colors so I could actually wear different colored tops with it. It's a thought...

Either way, I'm disappointed in the pattern, and with the high empire waist (not to mention the bow in back) it ends up looking a little twee on me. Oh well. Lesson learned, I suppose. :) If I keep the pattern, I'm making notes on it to remind myself not to make the same mistakes again.

I've been crocheting and knitting whenever I sit down in front of the TV. I started this habit well over a year ago and now it feels weird to sit down empty-handed. Right now I have about 7 projects on hooks or needles, most of them very simple (washcloths, potholders, afghans), so I don't get too bored with any one thing. I can switch off when my hands get tired.

I blame Internet-induced ADD for my lack of motivation to sew. Or the fact that I can't find a zipper to match this lovely rose-colored damask that is now mostly-a-dress. I get frustrated and stop sewing when things don't match or a pattern just isn't working out, and that leads to piles and piles of fabric, cut out or whole, all over the sewing room. Not pretty.

Maybe if the cable on the sewing room TV wasn't so screwy...

In any case, it's been hard to tackle even simple mending/altering chores lately and that is frustrating and makes me want to not do anything at all, and then I realize that I don't have pants, and I get frustrated and overwhelmed looking at the Pile o' Pants that need altering. HOWEVER. I did successfully alter my first pair of pants last week! I unpicked three layers of waistband (Gap isn't kidding around about waistbands) and took them in at the back waist by about 2 inches, not breaking my needle (barely) when sewing the back belt loop back on. If you didn't know, you probably couldn't tell. Altering is still my least favorite, but once I get going, I'm pretty good at it--I just have to think of it as a puzzle and my brain actually enjoys itself.

So. One pair of pants down, 5 more to go. 4 to be taken in in the same method, 1 to be hemmed. Maybe it's 2. Something like that. Like I said, once I get going...

Maybe I won't look in despair at the pile of flannel, wool, and corduroy in another month.

Threats.

2010-04-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

This stupid dress better fit, or I'm making it into a skirt. I have no desire to redo the bodice again, but I spent WAY too much time on it to just give it away if it doesn't work. Mental notes: If you do that pattern again, just add a seam to the center back and put the zipper in THERE instead of in the side; cut out size 14 shoulders, 16 bust, and 14 everything else (don't even get me started about how annoying that is); don't do the crookedly marked tucks on the cummerbund detail...

Meh. Maybe I just won't ever make it again. I'm not happy with it. It's cute, yeah, and I added sleeves to the bodice to make it wearable for me, but ugh. It's just taken way too long to finish--I had to keep putting it away out of frustration, and I'm no slouch when it comes to reading and interpreting a pattern.

Stupid pattern. It better fit.

Funny thing...

2010-03-21T22:40:00.000-07:00

Once I get going, I tend to stay going--laws of motion, anyone? Anyway, today I MADE MYSELF hide in the sewing room to finally finish the bright pink flannel-back satin pajama top I cut out oh, maybe October? It's done. It took me three hours of being strangely unable to focus, but I sewed the collar (I have a weakness for men's-style pajamas), the buttonholes, the buttons, and the hems and now it's in my drawer...just in time for slightly warmer weather. ha ha.

Then, since I already had the iron hot, I ironed a skirt and a blouse for my sister and a skirt for me. While I was ironing, I noticed the infamous brown butterfly dress I've been ~~avoiding~~ working on for months (weird bodice alteration) and remembered that it was a moderately nice early Spring day, and decided to see how far I could get on it before I had to stop and wind down for the night (which, obviously, hasn't happened yet and which, even more obviously, I'll kick myself for in the morning). I got as far as the side seams, including the dreaded side zipper, before calling it a night. All that's left is sleeves and hems, and I may just do a turned-up hem instead of a nice blind hem. Doesn't really matter--I'm just happy to have a new dress ready to wear soon!

In other news, I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not. Remember how I applied for Penland's core fellowship? Well, I got a lovely letter just after Thanksgiving telling me that they appreciated my applying but didn't have a spot for me. 88 applicants tried for four fellowship positions, and I know I'm not as good a silversmith as many of the others who applied. That's ok. A couple of weeks before I got the letter, I actually had a very strong feeling I wouldn't get it, and I felt just fine about it. I just wonder what happened to the SASE that was supposed to return my little portfolio to me...I'll get around to emailing them one of these days. I'm actually thinking of heading out there for a few weeks this summer anyway, depending on how my work situation is.

Lots to think about. Let us hope it doesn't keep me awake or result in the weird/disturbing dreams I've been having lately...

Factorials in real life. Really.

2010-02-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

I finished Charlotte's afghan just in time for my parents to cram it into a suitcase and take it with them when they visited a few weeks ago. She loves it, apparently, and one of these times I'll post pictures. It turned out to be really pretty and weaving in all the loose ends (lots of stripes on this one) was totally worth it. :)

Now I'm working on a small granny square project using a selection of Vanna's Choice yarns in lovely earth tones. My little squares are about 4" and have three rounds of different colors. My sister, who is very smart, challenged me to choose yarn colors as randomly as possible and use whatever I grabbed out of the bag I was keeping the skeins in. So far, it's worked. The colors are very complimentary to each other, and while there are some combinations I wouldn't have purposely chosen, they still look really great. It's been a fun challenge!

I was curious how many combinations were possible with seven colors of yarn and three rounds in each square, and I remembered there was a mathematical formula for figuring things like that out. I couldn't remember the exact formula, though, until I asked my Illustrious Father, who reminded me of factorials.

Factorials! Yes! I always liked factorials, and when Illustrious Father reminded me how they worked, we figured out that seven colors of yarn and three rounds in each square would be 7!/3! which is 7x6x5x4 = 840 possible combinations. This means that my odds of repeating any given combination are VERY slim, which is great. It'll be a lovely little random patchwork afghan and I can't wait to see what it looks like!

I actually think my chances of repeating are a little higher than they would be if I had assigned each yarn a number and rolled dice for each round, but it's still very unlikely that there will be a single repeat.

Yes. If math had been this fun in the classroom, I'd probably have paid more attention and done better...

Sequins II

2010-02-05T10:11:00.000-08:00

Remember this post? I mean, how could you not, considering I have posted ONE THING since then...

Well, I found a dress on eBay from a great Chinese seller. They really were so considerate; they reassured me that my dress would get to me on time, and they even included a little Christmas card with a bear-in-a-Santa-hat ornament. The tracking was right on, the price was EXTREMELY good (good enough to make me feel a little guilty about potential exploitation), and the dress is pretty well-made. I should have gotten a size smaller, though, but it was too late to do a return so I made do. Because of reasons that are obvious to most of my readers, I keep my shoulders and chest covered up, even in evening wear. This dress was VERY low-cut and had spaghetti straps, so I had to figure out a clever way of either altering it to have shoulders and sleeves or finding something pretty to wear over it. I decided on the Occam's Razor approach and bought a couple of sequin appliques from another eBay seller, thinking I'd be able to fill in the neckline with something like that.

Well, the appliques were stitched onto a lovely mesh fabric, but it wasn't stable enough to work for what I needed and there was no really effective way to attach them to the thin straps of the dress. I rooted through my stash ("I KNOW I have red satin in here SOMEWHERE!" I said over and over to myself as I rooted) and found some red satin and a hot-fix rhinestone applique leftover from a couple of earlier projects. I folded a rectangle of satin and applied the rhinestones and then hand-stitched it into the low V of the neckline. Because the dress was still too big, and I didn't have time to alter it, I wore a red cap-sleeved camisole from Down East Basics (their sizing seems arbitrary and annoying, and their skirts and dresses are still rarely long enough on me, but since I only wear the camis under things, it was ok) and found a black ruffled bolero with a bit of a 1930s feel from yet another eBay seller. Because the train was a little cumbersome, I sewed a ribbon loop into the center back seam and carried the thing around on my wrist all night. It worked really well and kept people from stepping on me.

At some point, I'll actually alter the dress so it fits better, but I wore it to two parties (the Final Gasping Death Rattle Party of Doom and a New Year's Eve party) and got a lot of compliments on it. I'm pleased with the results, and here is a rather blurry picture taken toward the end of the New Year's Eve party to show you:

Dear fellow seamstresses:

2009-12-03T08:08:00.000-08:00

The reason your dress made with a vintage pattern doesn't fit right is probably one of two things:

1. You neglected to add shoulder pads or do the necessary alterations to eliminate the need for them.
2. You are not wearing the proper foundation garments that women in the 50s would have worn under such dresses.

Keeping those things in mind, you should probably make a muslin (using the wonderful techniques described in Susan Khalje's Bridal Couture, which is a book everyone should own) and expect to do some altering. Also, sizing is different in vintage patterns. You may be a 10 in stores, a 14 in modern patterns, and an 18 in vintage. Deal with it and always always go by your measurements instead of what size you THINK you are. I promise it's better this way, even if you end up taking something in. It's always easier to take in than to let out. :)

Inspiration!

2009-11-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

Grosgrain is doing a guest giveaway, and I have to say that I really like this jewelry aesthetic. I only hope that whatever I end up doing will be as charming and creative as The Brass Hussy.

Sequins!

2009-11-11T11:24:00.001-08:00

I have a party to go to in December, not four weeks away. Because it is, as I like to call it, the Final Gasping Death Rattle Party of Doom for this particular group, I feel the need to wear something FABULOUS. My association with this group began, really, with a photograph of me in a red velvet strapless dress. Now. Lest we get all annoyed at me, keep in mind that it's the only time I've ever worn it and a friend was practicing her photography and wanted to take a picture of me in it. Besides, it doesn't even fit me anymore...sadly. And even if it did, I would feel terribly inappropriate wearing it to this party, ESPECIALLY after having made such a point of keep myself covered at every party.

So. Yes. I want to wear something red and fabulous and sparkly to this party. I want to look awesome in pictures. I want to not look like a drag queen. I want to get my hair done and wear pretty makeup and rhinestone earrings and silver (or blue!) heels. I might even want to impress a date, should the opportunity arise.

I have a couple of patterns that will work for what I want (McCall's 3944 view B, OOP Simplicity 9213 view B with sleeves, or McCall's 2681 view A with a shiny top) but I'm having the WORST time finding fabric! If I find something that is perfect, it's also $200 a yard or comes from Thailand and will take three weeks just to ship. I don't want to use the glitter-dot sequins at the fabric stores even though I will as a last resort. I've been trawling eBay and Amazon to find something workable that won't break me and I've had a small amount of luck but not much. The most I'm willing to pay at this point is $20 a yard, and I LONG to live near Mood so this wasn't so much of a struggle! I can't even find the special order book at JoAnn--I think they've hidden it or discontinued everything but the Casa matchy-matchy fabrics. blar.

Perhaps on my lunch break I'll have some luck. And, if all else fails, I'll just use the cheesy American Knit glitter-dot stuff and hope it doesn't look too cheap. I'd really like to have an evening gown that isn't costumy for those (very few) Occasions I can see myself attending in the future.

Ideas? Throw 'em at me!

Update:

2009-10-28T14:02:00.001-07:00

It's not that I haven't been busy, it's that I've been busy with other things. Also, I often forget to take pictures of what I'm doing so that the two people who read this have a reference point.

I have a few projects in progress right now--well, more than a few, but just a few that I'm close to finishing.

I'm crocheting afghans for my niece and nephew with yarn they picked out all by themselves. It's been interesting; I've taken to calling The Lad's afghan the "Amazing Technicolor Afghan" because there are, I kid you not, 7 different colors that don't necessarily match. He chose them, though, and my sister and I figured out a way to make it work with stripes. I got done and realized that it wasn't as wide as I wanted it, so I went back to the store and picked out two more colors of yarn. I hope he likes it. Charlotte chose a really lovely pink-cream-brown variegated yarn which I'll do in wavy stripes, or "tripes", as she calls them. She loves tripes. I hope to have those done by Thanksgiving so I can ship them to the kids. When Baddest Baby in the Land is a little older, I'll have her choose yarn as well.

I did the finish work on a Megara costume for my friend's daughter. It took me a couple of hours to figure out how to make the hip sash stand out like it does in the cartoon, and I think I swore in my head a couple of times, but it turned out pretty cute. I even used Sculpey for the funky swirly buttons--I just made half-inch thick snakes that were about 3 inches long and rolled them in a spiral like a cinnamon roll. Poked a couple of holes with a darning needle to make them into buttons, baked them, painted them gold (with one of my three different bottles of gold acrylic paint), and sewed them on this morning between 6 and 6:30. No, I don't normally get up that early and sew, but I think it's good for me and I am thinking about making it a habit. If I can sneak in half an hour in the sewing room every morning, I'll get a LOT done.

I'm making a costume for my friend Anna. Last night, I was able to serge the skirts for both the underskirt and the dress (too lazy to do real seams) and get the rest of it cut out. Tonight, after my callback audition, I'll do the boning, throw the bodice together, and figure out the half-elastic/half-waistband finish for the underskirt. If I'm really lucky (and don't keep breaking serger threads like I did this morning), I should have the basic thing banged together before 11 tonight and completely done for delivery around 8:30 or 9 tomorrow night.

I finished piecing (in less than 30 seconds) the miniature quilt I started when I was 17 or 18 and all I have to do now is find some thin batting, a sturdy embroidery hoop, and quilt the darn thing.

I purchased this lovely thing because I only have four crochet hooks, but many knitting needles "inherited"--acquired because my mom had them but I'm the only one in our family who actually knits--from my grandmother. I hope to start doing more crochet because it's pretty easy for me and I like yarn. More knitting too. I had wanted to knit a sweater by the end of the year, but the only way that will happen now is if it's a baby or doll sweater. ha ha.

I found the perfect pattern to use up some of my fancy scraps that have been sitting in a box forever (the birds and ornaments) and plan to put some together and use up some fiberfill that's just been hanging around in the sewing room.

There are also a couple of dresses I started over the summer that NEED to be finished soon. They're both within a couple of hours of total completion, and then I need to make three long skirts for winter, not to mention the numerous knee- to mid-calf-length skirts I have fabric for.

Wish me luck...

No Taos for me, but a stroke of genius:

2009-10-06T16:53:00.001-07:00

Short story: They had to cancel the spinning workshop because of lack of interest. I guess my interest wasn't enough to make it happen. :) I'm fine with it.

Stroke of Genius That's Probably Been Thought Of: What about fleece insoles? How easy would those be to make? They'd make my Danskos extra comfy and warm...and they could be something I'd never wear on my body, like pink camouflage...

Back to Taos!

2009-09-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'm going back this year for the Taos Wool Festival, even though (due to previous engagements) I'll miss the Festival itself. I'm ok with that, because I discovered the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair not too far from me. I'll go to that with my sister to get my vendor/color/touching everything fix and take a one and a half day spinning workshop (cleverly titled "Yes, You Can Spin!" so as to give confidence to someone who kind of spun once on a drop spindle, and very badly) in Taos.

I'm really really excited. I've always been secretly fascinated by spinning wheels and wanted to know how they worked, and now I feel this drive toward learning everything I can about textiles and fibers and how it all goes together. There is a very real chance that a spinning wheel is in my not-so-distant future...especially if this keeps feeling like learning to felt last year: familiar. Unnervingly familiar. I remember fulling my felt, my arms and shoulders and back starting to ache, and suddenly realizing that it didn't feel like something I was doing for the first time; it felt like something I'd somehow always known but forgotten. If I show an aptitude for spinning, I have to Do Something with it somehow.

A smaller excitement is staying here and driving through that beautiful country.

Finished!

2009-08-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

I finished and delivered the dress on Thursday night (August 13).

I ended up doing a bagged lining, which is tricky and, quite honestly, hard to explain (I'll try later, if only to have it make sense to me), but I did it Wednesday night and it turned out beautifully. I almost cried. Except that I realized on Thursday that the lining was sagging after I'd hand-sewn the lining to the zipper. I had to make an 8" slit in the back seam, pull the hem of the dress through, unpick it all, and then cut the lining shorter by about 1/5". Totally nuts. The dress looked like a big tangled mess while I had it all up on the counter, but I managed to tuck everything back in and when I shook it out, it was the right length and the lining was laying quite nicely. I quickly pressed it (one of the advantages of underlining is that your fashion fabric doesn't wrinkle nearly as easily as it could have), sewed a hook and eye at the top of the zipper, and prayed that it would fit.

Emily tried it on for me and JulieG and it DID fit. She looks so pretty in it! We were so excited that it looked that good that I think we were almost crying. :) Emily's getting married!

I'll post pictures soon--I have to sync my phone and find them--but my sister just graduated with her MA in Humanities and my grandma and other sister are in town. Grandma is leaving for home (Seattle) in a few hours and I really need to spend time with her; she's the only grandma I have left. :)

Toodles for now!

August 8, 2009

2009-08-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm stalling.

I had a weird night, totally unrelated to sewing or creativity at all, but it's still getting to me.

Wedding dress goals for the day:

Finish the underlining (two skirt panels to go, but they DO have to be pinned and smoothed out before I sew, so it takes a bit longer).
Mark the darts, either by thread tracing or soapstone. Probably both, just in case.
Don't be intimidated by that tricky bodice--I've done it before, I'll do it again, and it's not hard. I'm just worried about having to unpick anything because I'm afraid the needle marks will show. I'll just have to take it slow so I can
Finish the basic construction and
Cut out the lining.

Goals for me:

Eat.
Quit at 6 so I can run some errands (new ironing board cover...?) before seeing a play at 8.
Get to sleep before midnight so I can
Wake up early tomorrow and sew.

Should be an interesting day!

July 29, 2009

2009-07-30T09:38:00.001-07:00

So last night I got home from work all ready to cut out Emily's wedding gown (well, at least the shantung and the organza for the underlining) only to discover that my dad was taking me and my sister to Wendy's. Not being one to turn down a grilled chicken sandwich, I agreed to go knowing that it was taking about an hour away from my cutting time. I could have used that extra hour, as it turns out.

When we got home, I kept forgetting that I had other things to do, like laundry, practicing for the voice lesson I thought I had today but didn't actually have (my vocal coach is out of town and I forgot), opening and installing the mouse for my netbook...but I finally got down to business. After washing my hands twice and forcibly reminding myself NOT TO TOUCH MY FACE EVEN IF IT ITCHED because I didn't want oils from my hands and face transferring onto the silk. As it is, I barely touched the fabric anyway.

We'd had to guess on the amount of fabric, because the silk shantung only came 54" wide at the store but the pattern only had yardage amounts for 45" and 60" fabric, and while I know there's a formula for converting fabric widths, I couldn't remember it. Using all my spatial orientation skills (and they are sort of mighty when it comes to sewing, I think) and those of the owner (who is mightier than I), we were able to get a pretty good estimate of the amount we needed but I was very nervous when it came to laying out the muslin on the shantung and beginning to cut. Especially after buying this book and being reminded that I should have cut the muslin with much wider seam allowances than I had. I had to do some altering in my head, which was interesting, and I could only mark the fabric with a soapstone marker because anything else would have either not come out or would have left a mark. (Soapstone markers are great because any marks disappear completely when you rub them off, but let me tell you, it's hard to see a white mark on ivory fabric and I may end up thread-tracing the long darts in the front.)

I laid out the fabric in my usual way, folded selvedge (selvage? whatever; they're both right) to selvedge, knowing that I'd definitely have enough if I could cut it that way. I soon discovered, though, that the usual way wouldn't work and I'd have to open it up and fold it raw edge to raw edge. While I have a pretty big cutting table (thanks to my dad who built a wheeled platform for a big office desk/conference table) and a pretty big cutting mat (30X60), I needed more space for the fabric to stay off the floor. Just to the right of our cutting table are the bifold doors to the sewing room and there was just enough room to set up my ironing board at the end of the cutting table so the fabric had something to sit on. I had to warn my dad and sister not to attempt to come into the sewing room for a while, as this arrangement would mean the doors were blocked. After I got the fabric laid out and the grain lined up, I began figuring out how to lay out the pattern.

I admit I had a couple of moments of near-panic when I was positive I was short by 9", but after some clever arranging and a LOT of prayer, I figured out the best way to get everything on there with room left over. It took quite a bit of laying it out, standing back, minute adjusting, standing back, skootching, standing back, completely changing my mind, standing back, squinting, praying, more praying, and standing back before the lightbulb clicked on and I knew exactly how to lay everything out.

Then I prayed AGAIN before cutting it out. I was grateful during that hour or so to have two sizes of rotary cutters, some good scissors, very long arms and fingers, and a good eye, not to mention the "Firefly" DVDs kindly lent to me by my friend Damon. Silk shantung, once you lay it out and get the grain all right, is wonderful to cut. It doesn't shift, it's not hard on your cutters like some polyesters are, and the handy ribs help you keep your pattern exactly on grain. It was a lovely experience. Some time around 10 my mom got home from Girls Camp and I had to show her what I'd done and how beautiful the fabric was. She was impressed with both (my mom loves me!) and said that it would be a beautiful wedding dress when I was done.

I (probably stupidly) started cutting out the satin-faced silk organza at about 10:30 PM, but since I already knew the ideal layout for the pattern, it wasn't too hard....except that because silk organza (especially the satin weave) is so crisp and lofty it was a BEAST to keep straight on the table! As I was cutting out the front of the dress I had to hold the rest of the fabric in place with my hip, which was a little tricky and another time I was grateful for long arms and a good eye. If a fabric like this is a little off-grain, it can make the finished dress hang weird, and I didn't want that, so I was very careful. In retrospect, I should have not tried to cut two pieces at once and instead, just done one piece at a time. It would have taken longer but probably would have been a little easier considering how late it was getting. However, I persevered and tried really hard not to swear at it, and it all came out just fine.

After everything was cut, I thought about sewing the underlining and dress fabric pieces together (you layer the organza over the shantung and baste all the way around the edge, so instead of two fabric pieces, you essentially have one) and getting a head start on the main sewing that I'll be doing next week, but it was after 11 and I decided to err on the side of caution: needle marks don't always come out of silk and I didn't want to risk having to unpick anything. So I worked on that shirt dress (made out of men's striped brown shirting! ha ha!) for myself and got the bodice seams serged, that weird alteration done (faked), the skirt, facings, and collar sewn together, and everything pressed. I still need to trim and clip the collar and I probably need more buttons (I lengthened the skirt and I prefer it if the buttons don't end above my knees) and I have to sew the facings and buttonholes and sleeves and possibly put pockets in the skirt, but it won't take long for it to be done. I quit just before midnight and cleaned everything up before heading to bed...where three of the four family cats had already made themselves very comfy. I slept with the door open so they could leave when they wanted to. :)

Tonight I plan on getting as much sewing done for myself as possible, do another load of laundry, watch the rest of "Firefly", and return the DVDs to Damon before the busy-ness of the weekend.

This weekend

2009-07-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I've done the following:

Finished a skirt, which involved sewing the yoke facing by hand because I tried to sew it twice by machine and it just kept shifting. Mental note: don't use linen for that pattern again. And then, when I put it on for church this afternoon, I discovered that it was at least a size too big. This is a Vogue pattern, which fit me really well, and it was too big. This either means I'm losing weight, or the pattern is nuts. It's Vogue, though, so I'm betting on the weight loss. Unfortunately, altering the thing will essentially involve re-sewing it. I'm not ready to that, although I had time today.
Got Emily's muslin all marked and then I unpicked it and pressed it and marked it again so I can cut out the shantung in the next couple of days. I'm a LITTLE nervous, but it will be just FINE.
I looked at the unfinished dreaded brown butterfly-print dress that I added sleeves to, and then decided not to deal with it. I have to take the neckline in (there's no easy way to do that!) and I should have put a back zipper in to begin with because the side zipper is stupid. Mental note: if you're adding sleeves to a sleeveless dress with a side zipper, it's probably best to assume that you should just do a back zipper and save yourself the annoyance.
I stashed some fabric for fall. I'm not in the mood to cut it out yet.
I cut out my brown striped shirt-dress and I'm really excited to finish it. So excited that I forgot to serge the raw edges (which I do on just about anything that isn't lined) on the bodice before sewing it together, but that turned out to be a good thing because in my slapdash fitting (putting it on over my shirt because my baby niece kept opening the sewing room door) I realized that I'm in for a tricky alteration that seems to be more or less universal: While I've gained about a size over the last few years, I haven't gained weight in my shoulders or chest. My bustline, yes, but not my chest. I'm just as thin there as ever, but if I cut out a dress or shirt in the bigger size, it means the neckline, shoulders, and upper chest are too big. Ugh. Maybe I'll have to do the tricky and obnoxious size-grading maneuver where I keep the chest and shoulders the smaller size and grade up to the larger size from my bust down. Hate it. I am annoyed that I gained enough weight to have to do extensive alterations. So the dress isn't done, but I hope to have it done by the end of the week when I go to a family reunion.
I hemmed a pair of capris that came unhemmed in the wash. No big deal.

I think I'm actually making a huge dent in my projects, but, quite frankly, I'm so annoyed that I have to do the above-mentioned chest alterations (remember that chest is different from bust), and that the skirt I thought I cut out in my current size is too big, that I am easily frustrated and discouraged and I have days at a time when I don't want to sew ever again. However, the creative spark will burn and I keep finding things I want to make.

PANTS!

2009-07-17T09:43:00.001-07:00

Not only is that a line from "The Hudsucker Proxy" (one of my all-time favorite films), but it is the title of my current dilemma.

After a few years of working part-time for very little money while finishing school and not being able to afford more than the very basics of a wardrobe, not to mention digging out of a period of depression following the break-up of my engagement, I finally got a decent full-time job. As a result of better pay, I spent probably a little too much money on clothes, including LOTS of pants. I have a 34 inch inseam, and when you don't make much money it's hard to justify spending $60 + on anything, let alone pants. When I started making more money, I ventured into Gap because I knew they had long pants in stock nearly all the time. I spent over $300 on Gap pants last year. It may not seem like much to some people, but it was a lot to me! And I was so happy to find pants that were long enough that fit well that I went a little crazy...

Now I have a dilemma. I have all these pants that I bought a size bigger (because I was a size bigger) that now are too big. I have the skills to alter them (much as I dislike altering anything) but I wonder if it would just be cheaper to buy new pants in my regular size. When I consider what my time is worth and the time it will take to alter all those pants (something like 6 pairs), it might actually be cheaper in the long run to just buy new ones and give my old pants away. Quite a dilemma, eh? What a pain.

Where is my time machine?

2009-06-21T18:21:00.000-07:00

I really want to pack up the thousands of beads and sequins, the 13 yards of white Thai silk, and the 6 yards of dark pink silk, and go back in time and talk to Christian Dior, Ciel Chapman, Jacques Fath, Edith Head, Hubert Givenchy, Alix Gres, Madeleine Vionnet, and Charles Frederick Worth. THEY'D be able to design the perfect wedding gown for me.

No, I'm not getting married, but it definitely couldn't hurt to have a team like that behind me when the day comes!

So here's a conundrum:

2009-06-06T13:17:00.001-07:00

Do I put away the winter fabrics I bought several months ago and never made into anything, or do I make the projects and store them in my slightly crowded closet until I can wear them again?

Hm.

I think I'll put away some and leave some out--I've got a few yards each of charcoal and red all-season wool suiting that will be made into long skirts, and I don't have enough long skirts. I also want to make Vogue 8364 but I don't know if it would look good in one of those pretty embroidered linens from JoAnn. Maybe it would. I'm thinking the olive green with the beige/gold flowers on it would be nice in this pattern. But before I do that, I need to cut out a wedding dress pattern and wash some muslin so I can get a good start on the sloper for Emily's wedding gown! Yay!

Right now, I need to finish some laundry and put some patterns away and buy thread and a zipper for impossible-to-match yardage and serge around one more dress and cut out the other pant leg for my sister's pajamas (I didn't cut four because I'm used to doing a 1-piece leg instead of a 2-piece leg and I wasn't paying attention to the pattern...) and do some mending and some hemming and see if I have the patience to make a slip-liner with cap sleeves for a silk chiffon dress I bought 6 years ago.

Busy weekend! I hope it's productive!

Things are shifting...

2009-05-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last night, after some friends from church came to visit, I felt inspired and energized to tackle the ever-increasing piles of fabric in "my" sewing room. I hit the serger hard, almost completing 1 pair of pajama pants (I just have to do the leg hems and the elastic casing) and serging the raw edges of another pair of pajama pants, a skirt, and a dress. Then my ankle got tired because I was sitting on a high stool and my foot was at a weird angle, so I walked around a bit before digging through my zipper box for a zipper so I could finish the skirt after discovering that the tension is off on the sewing machine which means one of us needs to take it in for a check-up. I of course chose to do a lapped zipper, which isn't my favorite thing to do anyway without being as tired as I was. I think it turned out well, but I (wisely) decided not to attempt the planned rolled hem or waistband binding (since I decided that I will just bind or face almost all my skirt waists instead of putting in the stiff and uncomfy waistbands because of the very scant distance between the bottom of my ribs and the top of my pelvis/ribs).

It felt good to be sewing again, and I hope to have a pretty new dress (the rose-colored damask is FINALLY cut out and serged around!) for a friend's wedding on Monday, and my sister will FINALLY have her red, flannel-backed satin pajamas that should have been finished in December. *shame*.

As for the things that are shifting, I'm mentally composing a post for my introspective blog about what has led to the following decision: I am applying for a core fellowship position to study weaving and silversmithing at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. I'd been searching for a graduate degree program in textiles and have been discouraged by the sheer expense of it, not to mention the blank wall of death that rises in my brain at the thought of taking the GRE. It hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks a few weeks ago that I was looking for the wrong thing and should, instead, be looking for crafts schools.

So I did.

And I will say that, when I read the description of the core fellowship at Penland, I felt exactly the same way I felt when I registered for a workshop during the Taos Wool Festival last year--a mixture of familiarity (hard to explain), excitement, the urge to cry from unexplained happiness, and a little bit of fear--which means I need to somehow do this. I don't know if it's going to pan out they way I hope, but I know I have to try. The deadline to submit the paperwork and 10-item portfolio (which is the part that makes me the most anxious, as I haven't done a lot of fiber art at all) is October 1st.

Ack.

Pray/sacrifice/cast runes for me.

Summer projects

2009-04-12T20:14:00.001-07:00

I got a lot more stuff cut out a couple of weeks ago before I visited family in Seattle. It feels good to have made a dent in the (neatly stacked and organized) piles on the cutting table. This week, things will slow down and I'll have my evenings free again, so I'm ready to make a dent in the (neatly stacked) pile of cut-out projects while watching the rest of my Fred and Ginger boxed set and trying not to cry during "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle". Gets me every time.

My niece told me that I need to make a brown dress because she has a brown dress. Little does she know that I have some brown shirting with pink and red stripes just waiting to be cut out! Hooray! I've knitted a few more washcloths and am starting to feel a little more confident about actually achieving my goal to knit a sweater this year. My sister wants to get a big order of flour-sack towels to embroider and give away or sell, because we both have great ideas for such things. That may be a project for this summer as well.

That is, of course, if I can get my major summer project up and running by the end of May.

I'm making a wedding dress for a dear and lovely friend, and I'm SO excited I can't stand it.

That's right--a wedding dress.

I smile every time I think about it!

a-hem.

2009-02-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

I've had three pairs of pants in my sewing room waiting to be hemmed for, oh, three weeks now. I haven't hemmed them because I've been wearing skirts more, but last night before I went to bed, I thought, "I miss my brown, green, and pink plaid pants and I want to wear them tomorrow with my pink sweater. I'll have plenty of time to hem them and wash and dry my hair in the morning!" and then I went softly to sleep. Until my alarm(s) went off between 6:05 and 6:31 AM. I thought about staying in bed for a few more minutes, and then remembered that I was going to hem some pants. "10 minutes," I thought. "Maybe 15."

However, when I got to the sewing room at 6:50, I had to try them on because I hadn't marked them earlier. Then I had to press out the old hem, which involved setting up my sleeve board, finding the spray bottle, and plugging the iron in after moving the lamp. Then I had to find thread that matched. Then I decided to do a blind hem instead of regular hem. Then I had to change presser feet and wind a bobbin of the thread that was close enough but not perfect. And then I had to adjust the stitch width. Then I had to press again. Then I had to put everything away.

Then I looked at the clock. And it was 7:15. The hair is curly-dried-naturally today instead of the smoothed-with-hairdryer-and-round-brush look I was aiming for, but the pants are hemmed and I made it to work on time (barely).

Remind me to make sure I have matching thread for the other two pairs of pants the night BEFORE I want to wear them.

Ugh.

2009-01-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm a big talker.

Anyway. I love plaid. Love it. I also love pleats. This is a serious problem, because I hate matching plaids when I'm cutting things out. I have this great (ugly to some) plaid wool (actually I have three different wools) that I want to make skirts with and I love pleated plaid skirts and I put off cutting anything out because matching plaids is so annoying to me. And, once they're matched perfectly and being sewn, I remember that I don't have a walking foot or one with those little rollers on it, and even though we have great differential feed on this machine, the plaids nearly always come out just a fraction of an inch off. I'm talking MAYBE 1/16 of an inch. Enough to annoy me.

*sigh* I'm cursed, I tell you! Cursed!

2009

2009-01-02T08:17:00.000-08:00

You know, I didn't get a lot of sewing done over the holidays. I'm a little disappointed in myself, but I'm glad I spent time with family and friends instead of locking myself in the sewing room for 10 hours a day. I'm trying to come up with realistic goals for this year--I had previously thought about doing a project a week, but then I realized that I'll probably have a lot on my plate this year and don't want to cause even more stress by trying for the nearly impossible. I think, instead, that I'll go for a project a month. That seems easier to accomplish, right? Yes.

I've decided as well that I want to improve my knitting skills enough to make a sweater by Christmas. This means that I'll need to practice, and practicing entails lots of scarves, washcloths, hats, etc. Because I really don't have room for a lot of stuff right now (seeing as how I don't have a house or apartment), I'll probably be giving stuff to people. If you like a project I'm doing (and I'll post progress photos), let me know and I'll send it to you. I love knitting and crocheting, but I'm realistic enough to know that I can't keep everything...so I might as well give it to someone who can use it!

Next up for the knitting: washcloths. Lots of them. I can get probably 3 washcloths out of one "super size" skein of Sugar n Cream yarn (I have a weird fondness for variegated things), and I have purchased something like 8 skeins lately. Before you scoff, I will tell you right now that knitted washcloths last forever--I found a pattern by a woman who says her knitted cloths have lasted 10 years--and are very absorbent. I made a test one for my mom and she's quite pleased. Pleased enough to want to find crochet cloth patterns and make them for her sisters. My sister wants me to make her several of them in red and bright green, and I'm happy to comply. If you want to try one, let me know and I'll throw one on the needles!

I'm still working on my sampler scarf, and I plan to knit a blue wool scarf in a "divided squares" pattern--the squares are divided diagonally in a half-knit, half-purl pattern and it's quite nice. I chose a solid almost-Williamsburg blue wool for this and I'm excited to see how it turns out.

I'm just about done crocheting a black boucle scarf. It's the same triple-crochet I did for Laresa's afghan and it's a nice lacy effect when you use a size N hook on a thinner yarn. That should be done this weekend. I have a bridal shower tomorrow but when I get home from that, I'm cutting out pajamas and skirts and I hope to sew a skirt and a dress before church on Sunday.

Happy New Year!

The continuing story

2008-11-24T14:57:00.001-08:00

Continued from HeidiAphrodite.

A list of recent fabric yardage and the project into which said yardage will be sewn, links to be added later.

2.625 yds of fine-wale red corduroy. It was going to be a skirt for me, but then I decided that I'd rather have a nice wool suiting skirt instead. I'm tossing around the idea of lengthening View A of this pattern to something at least mid-calf, if not longer. So I'll need to head to Hancock and get a couple of yards of their red wool while I still can. As of yesterday, I think I'll use the corduroy for skirts for my mom and sister, or just a dress for my sister. She's not as tall as me--there should be plenty for a simple dress.

4 yds of that pretty rose-colored damask I posted about earlier, to be made into the 3/4 sleeve version of this.

4 yds of cream cotton with a very pretty brown filigree butterfly print on it, to be made into this, except with sleeves. I'll be using the cummerbund effect of View B on View A, and finding an appropriate sleeve.

3.5 yds of red flannel-backed satin for pajamas for Laresa.

1.5 yds of pink flannel-backed satin with a cute penguin print for pajama pants for me.

3.5 yds of sky blue cotton with snowflakes and sparkles for pajamas for Bethani (I just need the style, Bethani!). I have a couple of surprises in mind for this project and I'm excited about it!

4 yds (maybe 3? I don't rightly remember) of that pretty sea-green wool I talked about in an earlier post somewhere that will become a skirt for mom and a dress for me, even if I have to buy another yard just to guarantee I have enough. The skirt will match the 4 or so yards of green and blue flowered silk I bought a few months ago, which will be made into a top to match said skirt.

2 yds of tan, rust, and sage green plaid wool from Pendleton Woolen Mills. I've had this for YEARS and I need to finally make a skirt out of it. I'm debating between bias cut or straight, but it will definitely be an A-line, possibly with pockets, and it will definitely be lined. I'm also definitely grateful the plaid is big, and therefore easier to match. Because Heaven forbid my plaids should be off by 1/8"! I'm serious.

I have a circle skirt of rust and brown plaid that I've been meaning to cut down into something a little more manageable. Probably another A-line or 1/4 circle skirt. It all depends on what works with what I have.

3 yds of a purple and ivory herringbone that was too pretty to pass up. It'll be a skirt, I just have to decide what pattern to use.

I have an awesome tapestry skirt that taught me, very painfully, to PRESHRINK before I sew! Now I wash pretty much everything (except stuff like acetate, polyester, and wool, but even then I'll usually give it a shot) before cutting it, because that beautiful tapestry skirt shrank on me and the only way to get it bigger is to cut off a few inches from the top and make it shorter. If that makes any sense. I'll have to move the zipper down and adjust to a shorter skirt that used to be almost ankle-length. I should have bought everything on the bolt because I've never found a prettier tapestry. *sigh* I still feel stupid about that one.

This week I also need to finish weaving in the yarn ends on Laresa's afghan and do some mending, including letting out some hems of supposed "long" pants that still aren't quite long enough. Silly Gap. Good thing they do deep hems.

Wish me luck--it's quite a goal to have all of this done next week!

The time has come...

2008-11-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

I hate cutting things out. It's my least favorite part of sewing. In order to make the whole process less annoying, my dad built a wheeled platform for an old desk that is our cutting table. The platform puts it at a really good height, and allows a lot of storage space underneath. Last year on the day after Thanksgiving, I braved the crowds (even got up early!) and bought a large rotary cutting mat (30x60 inches) so that we no longer have to use two smaller ones butted together. I also now have two rotary cutters--a regular size and a small size--to make those tricky curves easier to deal with. I recently bought a soapstone marker after remembering that it's much better than chalk, disappearing ink, pencil, or transfer paper (although each one of those has its place and can be very useful for certain fabrics) and I've really enjoyed using it. I have a magnetic pin cushion, my ninja scissors (the earlier version of the pair I linked to), pattern weights, a wall-mounted TV, a DVD player, a stereo, a nicely climate-controlled room with easy access to snacks (the storage room) and company (the family room).

And yet I still have a hard time getting motivated to cut anything out. Once it's on the table and I know how I'm laying out the pattern, I'm very quick at it. I learned some shortcuts (cutting little slashes in the seam allowance instead of cutting out darts) that have made it even faster, but I still don't like the whole preparation bit of it.

Maybe this weekend, if I have a spare four hours, I will put in my new Fred and Ginger DVDs and force myself to stay in the sewing room until I've cut out at least two dresses and some pajamas. IF I have a spare four hours... *sigh*

A High-fiber Lunch

2008-11-05T14:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Lisa, who made a really bad (and awesomely funny) pun when I told her I was going to the fabric store on my lunch break, I have title for my blog. Actually, I had to go to the fabric store because I have to reinforce the buttons on my pretty wool coat and I (GASP) don't have the right color of thread amongst my dozens of spools. I was pretty shocked. So I told Lisa with the magic of IM that I needed to go, and she said "Sounds like a healthy lunch full of fiber". It made me laugh.

I did come back with some fiber, and not just thread! I found a really pretty sea-greenish lightweight wool that would make a really pretty dress like unto this or this from Boden. For me or my mom. Or maybe both of us! I have just under 4 yards of 60" wide fabric, and that should be plenty for a simple little dress like that. What's surprising about finding that wool is that the wool selection around here has been absolutely dismal for the last few years with the exception of some nice coat-weight wool felts that I have no use for at this time. What's also surprising is that I got it for only $9.99 a yard. I did some quick calculating (initial cost divided by days worn) and realized that it would be a bargain to get a nice dress (or two) for $40. Now I just need to find a pattern or get really adventurous and "kitbash" a new pattern out of what I already have.

Next up, actually make the brown butterfly dress and the orange velveteen skirt (prettier than it sounds, I assure you) and some pleated skirts (corduroy? wool? a magic blend of some kind?). And buy some long socks (or these! because look how cute!) to keep my little legs warm.

Greco-Roman wrestling

2008-11-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

I am looking everywhere for an old Folkwear pattern called the "Gallenga Gown". I think it's number 507 and I really just want to LOOK at it to see if I want to use it for an event in December. Failing that, I need something really simple that will work with Fortuny-ish pleated fabric...which I will probably end up pleating and dyeing by hand, but which should look awesome if I can pull it off.

NaBloPoMo

2008-11-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm finally jumping on the wagon. At the very least, this will help me from being bored during the slow days at work!

I'll post on one of my blogs every day, and I can make no guarantees that the posts will be coherent, relevant, or worth reading, but there you go. Maybe I can use this to do some personal history and creative writing, which would be great.

And this officially counts as my first post of November!

Geometry is our friend!

2008-10-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is what I doodled at work while trying to figure out how to make a skirt without sewing more than two feet out of a piece of fabric that is roughly 60" by 72".

I am, apparently, a slacker

2008-08-19T13:26:00.001-07:00

But I will tell you that I have spent a lot of time this summer pruning and organizing "my" sewing room and it has been no easy task, let me tell you! That sort of explains why I'm not sewing, but not entirely. The entire explanation (besides the lack of a satellite receiver in the sewing room making it hard to sew because I like background noise that is not the radio) consists of two-part frustration.

Part 1: If I can find fabric I like, I can't find patterns I like. If I can find patterns I like, I can't find fabric I like.

Part 2: I've gained enough weight in the last few years that very few of my already-cut patterns fit me. This is a problem because I try to cut a pattern out as soon as I get it home so it's ready to go should I find fabric for it. This is also a problem because I've been the same size in patterns since I was 21 or so, which is over a decade of same-sizeness. I am serious here. Someone I know keeps trying to tell me "but you have a woman's body now" when I've had this "woman's body" since puberty ended round about age 23. (I was a late bloomer.) So, you see, I'm annoyed with myself for gaining JUST ENOUGH weight to make sewing the patterns I've already cut very tricky, because I hate making alterations on myself. I'm also annoyed because it seems like whenever I start to settle into a good exercise routine (seeing as how I'm no longer working 9-hour days on my feet in retail), I hurt myself or get sick and can't exercise for a couple of weeks, which totally messes me up. It's not a LOT of weight, but it's enough that I look at patterns and get mad because I don't want to do the alterations it would take to get them to fit, nor do I want to buy them in the next size up (and many of them are out of print), nor do I want to make them in the size I should be and have them hang unwearably in my closet.

So you see my dilemma. I know it's only a number, but honestly. I've spent lots of money on patterns that are suddenly the wrong size and I hate every single extra pound. Hate it. My goal is to keep exercising steadily and, by Christmas, fit into the lace and (perfectly matched) plaid skirts I haven't been able to wear for two or three years. My orange taffeta dress will no longer be slightly too tight, and I'll be able to wear my blue plaid wool Eddie Bauer skirt without it cutting into my waist.

That is my goal. I have the feeling that once I can drop that weight, sewing won't be such an annoying chore.

Mail today!

2008-05-27T14:01:00.001-07:00

Yay! My newest vintage patterns came today! I got them from Patternmania on Etsy and I love them. It's nice to have a new source for vintage patterns that isn't eBay...

I think I might make this slip out of a cotton batiste, with a little bit of stretch. Or not. I might just make it out of tricot and see if I can avoid the side zipper. I'm looking at View 2, just because it's cute and will work under full skirts and dresses. It will possibly be trimmed in pink. It calls for a "16 inch neck type zipper", and I have no idea what that could be. I'll probably use an invisible zipper.

I already have the fabric for this one--I bought over 4 yards of a beautiful robin's egg blue cotton sateen at JoAnn, because I didn't know how much I'd need yet. I'll be making View 1 and using some leftover off-white satin for the binding around the collar and sleeves and off-white mother-of-pearl buttons, and I may do something fun with the satin and my Wonder Under. Floral appliqués on the skirt or something. I figured I'd have enough extra to make at least one skirt, so I got a 7" zipper for that, not thinking that I'd need one for the side of this. I may have one in my stash, but if not, I know that the "ciel" zipper is a perfect match.

I'm getting excited about sewing again!

Already some resources, and the patterns I bought today.

2008-05-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

Amy Butler fabrics are gorgeous, and speaking of gorgeous, check out Gorgeous Fabrics.

Pricey, but if you're looking for something unique and funky, these look like the places to go. Amy Butler's stuff is almost as good as the Liberty of London prints I can't stop googling.

Here are the patterns I bought today and Saturday:

Vogue 8211. I want to find a pretty floral canvas for this one, and line it in a stripe. I'll probably end up doing View C (on the far right) with long sleeves, but I'm not sure yet. I have to find fabric first.

Simplicity 3744. I like the lines and the cute front pockets, and would love to do it out of a pique print.

My sister Bethani once showed me a picture of a wedding dress she liked, and it was very similar to the short-sleeved view of this version of Grace Kelly's wedding gown. I'd been drooling over the pattern for a while and decided to just get it while they were less than $4.00. If she'll let me, I'd love to make her dress when the time comes!

Vogue 8028. Nothing much different from a pattern I've had for 10 or 15 years, but the black and white view has a certain 30s vibe that I couldn't resist.

Simplicity 3530. I love Project Runway, and I think it's great that Simplicity has picked up this contract. The black view (short sleeves with the lace trim) is very much like my current favorite tunic/shirt style. I'd do it without the lace and probably with a lower neckline. If I make a dress from this, I'd love it in a pink print on white, maybe in a voile or gauze.

Simplicity 4047. Speaking of Grace Kelly...I really liked the blouse and skirt on this and may be persuaded to make the swing jacket as well.

McCall's 5400. Someday, I will make my bombshell bathing suit, and the white top in the upper middle is perfect.

McCall's 5556. I love tunics and this one has some great details. I'm thinking a light-weight brocade or one of the "sari" fabrics on clearance at JoAnn right now.

Well, here I am!

2008-05-26T09:29:00.001-07:00

After ranting about fabric stores and patterns and how neurotic I am about sewing, I decided it's time to have a sewing blog! At the very least, it will keep sewing in the front of my brain so maybe I'll be more motivated to actually do something with all the fabric I have laying around in my mother's sewing room.

I'll do a little intro, just for fun. I've been sewing since I was 7 or 8. My parents bought me a toy sewing machine for Christmas one year, and while I loved it, I quickly became bored with it and my mom began to teach me how to use the "big" sewing machine. My parents had gotten an old Viking at a school sewing machine sale and that's what I learned on. One day, I'll edit this post when I find the make and model. I made doll clothes and helped with mending--I remember making a skirt for my Barbies out of some navy blue cotton with little white flowers on it (leftover from the card-table tent Mom had made for us)...it didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped, but I learned a lot with that tiny bit of fabric. I got involved in 4H and made my first outfit when I was 10: pink pedal pushers and a pink top with a button placket. Nothing too complicated (elastic waist and many straight seams), but I learned buttons, buttonholes, patch pockets, and casings. I kept sewing Barbie clothes to match the many themes my sisters and I came up with in our play--"circus" was popular and I made tightrope outfits consisting of spaghetti-strap tops with little circle skirts attached and matching panties--and I also sewed clothes for our My Little Ponies, stuffed animals, and Cabbage Patch Kids.

I took a sewing class in 8th grade, and while I didn't learn very much, I made a blue stuffed walrus and started making clothes for a plush seal my best friend gave me for my birthday. I measured and cut holes for her little flippers and made matching bows that I would pin to her head, and I still have it all. I kept making dresses (with matching bows...) for myself and started to make things for my sisters. When my youngest sister was 9 and I was 16, I made her dress for the Fourth Grade Play. I can't even remember what the play was, but I remember her dress. It was a cobalt blue print on white with a white pinafore. The full sleeves had tucks on them and the pinafore had tiny little hems and it was the most beautiful dress on that stage. I think she still has it. I helped my mom make my sisters' dresses for high school orchestra and band, and I was put in charge of the design and color of the dresses for Concert Choir when I was a junior in high school. I made skirts and dresses all through junior high and high school and would wax creative with trim and buttons. I would haul the sewing machine into my room and spend most of Christmas Eve finishing dresses or jumpers or skirts for my sisters and spend hours trying to find the perfect fabric and pattern for each year.

I've always loved fabric and patterns and I've always drawn dresses. When I was in second grade and we got to decorate our big heart-shaped envelopes of butcher paper for Valentine's Day, I drew an 18th century couple on mine and got made fun of for drawing a girl "with a big bum". I tried over and over to explain that it was her DRESS, because I somehow knew that without knowing much about historic clothing, but I finally gave up. Little did I know that that incident would be a portent of doom for the future--I still find myself explaining aspects of clothing that most people don't believe, but I can back myself up. I started researching the history, psychology, and sociology of clothing when I was 12 because of an art project. We had to choose a picture out of any book in the library, reproduce it, and write up a little report about our subject. My friend Karen had found Doreen Yarwood's Encyclopedia of World Costume and we both chose pictures from that book. After the project was done, I went back to the library, checked the book out, and read it cover-to-cover at least twice before junior high ended. It was shortly after that I discovered the clothing section at the public library and devoured everything I could get my hands on.

Sewing has always come easily to me and I remember my mom saying that she couldn't teach me anymore because I knew more than her. I don't remember how I learned, but I did. It's a gift, I think, because I only took two formal sewing classes and didn't learn much (besides shortcuts) I didn't already know. It's just always been there. I have things in my closet that surprise me --I can hardly believe I came up with them and made them. I had a job at a fabric store from 1995-1997 and learned quite a bit there, and I worked for Nancy Barrus as her assistant for a few months in 2002 and learned more in that short time than any sewing class had ever taught me.

So, with all of that behind me, I'm easily frustrated in fabric stores because if I can find fabric I like, I can't find patterns I like and vice versa. I am thinking about playing with fabric stamps and resist dyeing techniques to get what I'm looking for, but I'm also always on the lookout for awesome fabric online. I just got back from my second trip to JoAnn and Hancock this weekend, another $45 poorer but rich in new patterns and inspiration and motivation. We'll see what happens!