Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Hey, 2000 blog views. I would be excited if most of them weren't some spambot from Russia I don't know how to shake.....

Friday, October 12, 2012

Summer Sewing Projects cont'd

So, going along with the 'I totally actually do things" track (which, ironically, helps distract me from actually doing things....like school...la la la!), this was the summer of handwork. See, one advantage to having previously mentioned handsome young man live two thousand freakin' miles away, and having to spend all of your couple time on skype, is that you have lots of time to work on those projects you would otherwise never get to. Like


Couching the grommets on a dress you made two years ago


Maybe next I'll get crazy and finish the inside of the arm holes :-p



and that blackwork project you've been meaning to get going forever



ok, this one actually came to faire too 


Photo by Laurie Tavan

So, there ya go. I do, in fact, do things.....now to stop blogging, get off the internet and actually go do some more of them :-P


Saturday, October 6, 2012

Follow-up- not my strong suit

So if anyone is actually reading this blog, I realize it must look as though I never actually accomplish any of the projects I outline here. This is not entirely true- I mean, does my ambition sometimes get a little ahead of my energy and time? well, yes, but not entirely!

Case in point, I actually did accomplish many to most of the things on this list, as evidenced here



Seeeeee? I do things!
Photo by Toni Tumbusch

I made a whole dress, even. And stays, though you can't see them. And went out and found gloves. And Maggie did incredibly awesome things to my hair.


The stays were from the Sense and Sensibility pattern. Everyone warned me before I started that the gussets need to be bigger than the pattern tells you. I wasn't quite sure how to figure this out, so I just kind of eyeballed it on paper and held it up till it looked about right (this was the project of 'dear lord my life would be easier with a dress form')- in the end I think I just added about a 1/4 inch on each of the four and it fits well.


My super-scientific process;The first one seemed two big when held up to my boob, the second just right (did I mention I want a damn dress form?).


 The bigger change was actually in the back- Laura helped me fit it and we ended up chopping about four inches out . We also moved the straps a little.



(back originally one piece without a seam)


Once this was done it had enough tension to fit pretty well with just the boning channels down the middle, without adding all the other boning in the bust. I added some quilting seems underneath for a little extra support. Having worn it three times now, I am quite happy. I fully *intend* to make a slightly prettier pair someday, with like real eyelets and stuff.... (yeah, right :-p).


Notice the beer stain? yeah, cause I'm a lady like that


So there ya go- I do actually do things! I'm just terrible about actually blogging them.

Oh, and the incredibly handsome young man by my side? Well, in case you live under a rock or people who aren't on my facebook are actually reading this, which would be nice to think...well, there had to be some motivation for all this work, right? ;-)