turns out I like this color more than I was aware....

Turquoise polar fleece in progress!

the color choice is due to my massive restraint - i.e. I contain my kleptomania to within my head, and then use legal means to acquire the objects of my desire.  More specifically - a friend lent me a sweatshirt this color one evening, I loved it, and decided that running off into the night with it probably wasn't the best option.

So now I shall have my own!  huzzah!

same pattern as the white and the green

Bread Turkey!

Who doesn't have her act together?  That would be this girl.   how late is this post?  several days.   What are you looking at?  Turklettes.   That's just how we roll around here.  (I crack me up.)

some context for those of you who aren't me.    We do a vegetarian thanksgiving, but tofurkey is gross and none of us like any of the other meat substitutes, so I make bread turkey.   (bread dough, molded like clay, covered with an egg glaze to get that nice shiny finish, and baked.   Well, there was extra dough, so I made mini turkeys too (yes, those are supposed to be mini turkeys.   look at the one in the center, the little blobs on top are its wings and the bigger ones are its drumsticks. see?  see!!!!!!!!!)

seriously, just go with it.  Its been a long time since I've seen a real one.

and we're back!

The jack was shorted!   which means it was a five minute fix that I could have done, but, had I started opening up their equipment and something went wacky, I think they would have been disgruntled.

okay...

sewing..  because that is in fact the purpose of this particular blog.  I've been a little all over the place lately, so the lining of the winter coat is in progress, the spring coat is nearly done (it needs hem binding and a closure), I have a pair of jeans cut out, another polar fleece jacket cut out and pinned, and a dress that is mocking me with its piping that requires I do the final fit before sewing the shoulders...    AND I am out of bobbins.   There are four, and none has the turquoise (polar fleece) or red (dress binding) that I need.   Just the colors for the coats.  stupidiest hold up ever, I know.  but I'm not actually sure what size they are, so I keep not getting extras.

oh -- and I got black satin last night to make a dress for the choir concert. ... which is in two weeks, so I should probably get my act together for that.  I haven't worked with satin since high school (the dress in question was rather questionable) so we're thinking happy thoughts.

midrift!

 and because pictures are happy fun piles of joy and wonder, I first offer a close up of the midrift of the spring jacket.  Its made by taking swirls of the primary fabric and sewing them onto the contrast with a very tight zig-zag (kind of like a satin stitch)  I've decided it looks like an obi.   What others think, I do not know, but I am most pleased.

and then, apropos of nothing, we have last year's halloween costume.  (I was cleaning off my camera)   The intent was steam-punk rather then pirate, but I ran out of time before finishing all the extra bits,  plus the color scheme... blue and brown probably would have been better.  Anyhow, its all my own design (and of course, construction)  fun times.  :)

look! a more recent picture!

On a wired connection, still not mine, but the second half of the test, that yes, it really is the service provider's fault and that they need to fix the damn thing, because this is getting ridiculous.  

Anyway, another picture of the jacket - this time in its current state.  Its the same pattern as the blue jacket and white lace shirt  - but details later, when I am not perched on a friend's bed, ostensibly just to test that my computer is functional.

which it is.  10 points to me.

later!

Tentacle Sleeves

At a cafe with internet, proving to myself that its the service provider, not my computer.  (they are threatening me with labor charges if I haul them out to fix things and its was my hardware)   Anyhow -- quick post as technically I am in French Club right now, but there are a zillion people so I can be anti social for a few minutes.   Anyhow, below are a few images of the tentacle sleeves of a artsy jacket I have almost finished, but being disorganized at the moment don't have more pictures of....   ah well.   (there is quite the back story on this one, but more later, when people aren't giving me funny looks.)

A zillion million facings

transferring the pattern with wax paper

Okay.... they noticed and are making fun of me.   I think its time to pay attention again --- but look! green lining!     happily all the pulls and wrinkles are hidden in the final, as its a sleeve and it just looks like normal movement crinkles.

Oh -- and the khaki is a stash-buster!  from the original January 2011 set!

epic fail

still alive,  once again without internet, and being foiled by my phone.   will its hot spot capabilites work... nope....can i capitalize anything or use alt characters like questions marks....nope.   can i access my pictures, either via gallery or downloads....nope.          so i will tell you jokes.                           how many dadaists does it take to screw in a lightbulb.....  a lobster  exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point      

double welt!

white on white with flash.   

Hasty, uneven, unpressed and not quite long enough, but damn it, it is a welt pocket.  And more to the point, I understand whats going on, why its happening, and what I will need to do to get it to come out properly for my coat.

The current plan is one on the lining, in the manner of a man's jacket and two (with zippers!) on the fashion fabric around the level of my hips.   I'm still trying to figure out where to put secret pockets.  I want ZILLIONS.  mwahahahahah!!!!!

On sewing books

Wandering through the bookstore yesterday afternoon, I went to check out the sewing section.   Since they usually only have one copy of any particular title, it tends to update frequently.  Anyhow, I happened upon 'Tailoring, the classic guide to the perfect jacket' which must have been written by committee, as it has no author.   I am in LOVE.   I say this as someone who has a fairly extensive sewing library - this is by far the clearest set of explanations I have ever come across.  There are *6* pages on welt pockets alone - most of which is taken up in pictures documenting every single step.  It even goes into the differences in putting a welt in fashion fabric and in lining.   Needless to say, it is now mine :)   (It even includes action shots of steaming, with spray and mist.  I was quite impressed.)  

Gleeful with good fortune, I continued to browse, and came upon this:  Crafting with Cat Hair.  really truly, not a joke, there is a whole book, that I can only imagine will end up as a gag-gift, but seems to have been written with complete sincerity.   I didn't dare buy it, but I think someday this may end up as a gift for someone I truly want to horrify.  Probably accompanied by fur from my own fuzzy friends.  One never knows.

helpful hints

tartan-tacular

yep.

 But first, let us take a moment to glory in the fact that I have wifi again.  My router broke, then I was a bum about getting a new one, and then the land line was being difficult about accepting the new one, and all in all, for the past few weeks, whenever I wanted to post something I had to perch on a chair by my front door, with a sideways laptop (for whatever reason it would not work in a normal orientation)   but now, NOW I AM FREE!!!!     free to sit on my couch, free to get distracted and do other things, free to ramble on and on in a post I don't have to pre-write and paste in place.    It is glorious.

Now, the business of the day:  I offer both a flannel shirt and a new pair of pj pants.    The shirt is traced off an old wrap jacket, and taken in just slightly in the back, and the pants were made in the same manner as the previous pair.    (The others may have been in the laundry, and I may have been out of quarters, so I may have made myself a new pair.  One never knows.)  While the shirt was originally intended as a lounging top half for the pajamas, it was so comfortable I decided its going to be a wander around lumberjack style shirt, and wore it to work on Friday.  (There is a lot to be said for an office that just don't care what I show up in.)

Pin curls in progress under the scarf

very much relaxed curls at end of day

even the inseam matches.   (!!!!!)

super hero style.

Also, dino - follow up.   (Thanks for the comments :) )    Yes, I wore it all day long.

The coat will continue soon - I'm a little leery of the slippery lining, but I need to suck it up and cut it out, as the weather is now hovering around freezing and will stay here for the next few months.

Dino-tastic!

 I don’t know about you, but this is what I wore to work on Monday*.  I like the think of myself as the embodiment of all that is awesome.   – for context, no one else, either in my office or my building, was in costume, so I made quite the sensation, as well as provoking a number of debates (after I had passed) as to whether I was a crocodile, a dragon or a dinosaur.   Personally, I thought it was fairly obvious I was an Allosaurus.

Anyhow, this costume dates from two years ago when some friends of mine decided that we should have a costume contest at the Halloween party – and I decided that I was going to win.   Well, they walked in, saw me, and refused to compete – I think that counts as that total victory.

Anyhow, its self drafted, my own design, etc..   The original version also had a lower jaw, but it was impossible to eat and a little difficult to breath, so I jettisoned it for this year. 

*In case any work people see this, yes, I got permission to use the pictures.