I like watching the puddles gather rain

Friday night I realized I wanted to be Blind Melon's Bee Girl. A run to the fabric store and some quick thinking that night and Saturday my costume was complete.

Here are the two issues that annoy me in this, the only picture. The tutu was too big so I wrapped the straps around me a second time thus creating a bustled look in the back. Unfortunately, the tutu still sagged and you can see the belt sitting at my waist with the tutu at my hip. argg!

Secondly, where on earth can you buy yellow and black striped knit fabric for the arm warmers? So I painted some felt and laced them on. Damn Roy for not telling me to rotate them. Of course, he had no idea who I was supposed to be.

Otherwise, quite pleased with myself. : )

best compliment ever

I wore this dress to school today:

I got compliments on it in the copy room and was told it looked very Anthropologie. Is that where I got it? *Grin!*

quilt

First (successful) quilt without Grandma's help!

I made this for EJ and Rachel's wedding gift. I hope they liked it! It's only lap sized, abou 50"x70 maybe? I can't remember now. It was hard to give it away.

new favorite skirt

I made this this weekend!  I LOVE it! So comfortable and it has pockets.  You can tell I wore it all day student teaching...a little wrinkly in front.  The sides by the placket (plaquet?) that covers the zipper and the pockets are rouched which make a lovely detail.  It's supposed to be high waisted but I altered and altered and altered that waist band and still can't get it quite right.  

And check out my new tights.  On sale at Fred Meyer!  They're bamboo and super soft.

Pants

I made another pair of pants this weekend.  These turned out better.  This particular pattern needs some slimming of the legs, I think.

This is the pattern while I"m in the middle of taping together the sheets printed off my computer.  Printed on the back side of pre-used paper.

Darn plaid doesn't match up in the front!  I'm not sure how I could have done it differently though.  My brain just doesn't wrap around it.

Legs are loose fitting which is comfy but might look funny.  I'll decide after I wear them today.  And I know they are long but think how great they'll work with heels!

accidentally western shirt

I went downtown last weekend to Border's just to buy a magazine.  Oh, but it's not just any magazine, no, this was/is Burda World of Fashion.  The subscription is $80/year so I wanted to make sure I liked it before I ordered.

The magazine is German, thankfully translated.  Inside each issue is 40-70 patterns!  I've made two from the issue I bought and I am in LOVE!  They are stylish and do not need any altering.  When I make clothes from the big 4 (McCall's, Simplicity, Vogue and Butterick) things never turn out right.  The two shirts I've made turned out great!

I do not have pictures of the first shirt I made, since i've worn it so many times this week it's now drying after a wash.  But here is the second shirt I made.  The fabric turned out to be a little more flashy than I was hoping for so I threw on some pearl snaps and made it a western shirt!  

 

Debbie Harry goes plaid!

Sweet!

I can't wait to show you what I did with that stencil! But they are drying right now. And I can't find my camera. I'll be back with pictures soon. So awesome!
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Here it is, with stripe distortion and wrong sized pillow stuffed in there! but awesome just the same!

what? no school?

What do you do when you don't have class or homework? You go to the library! I finished a book I borrowed from my boss, read a new novel and started another one all in one weekend.

I also sewed a pencil pouch, for my cool new pens for the coming year, on my new sewing machine! It even has an embroidered 'N' on it! fancy!

Next week is the first day of school for my student teaching....yikes!

Want to see my underpants?

I had mentioned I ripped apart one of my favorite pairs of underpants. Well, today I made the pattern and sewed up a pair! I used an old staff shirt from when I was a naturalist for the Girl Scouts. I thought the pink thread would be cute but now I"m wishing I had used something that matched better. Oh well. The best part is I"m wearing them right now! ; )

100th post, 100th monkey has 100 things to say

I had such a fun time last night at book club chez Jenny! I got to meet new girls and chat with two friends I don't see nearly enough! Unfortunately, I bought my book for book club new and so I need to decide what to do with it now. I was joking when I suggested this, but now I think I might do it! You know how you get dollar bills that people try to track across the country? Well this is a way to track your book. You just leave it somewhere and hope someone logs in its location. It's a way to share your books so others don't consume more AND a fun experiment! Now where should I leave mine? In Ballard or on the airplane?

I didn't exercise for an entire week. I will go today, after I digest these three donuts.

I turned on the heat in my bedroom for ten minutes last night. It felt luxurious. It's 59 degrees in my living room and I need to go study, I'm tempted to turn it on out there for a little while to take the chill off. I don't know why I feel so guilty using heat.

I got my zen stone plus. It's bigger than a Shuffle, I learned that last night but I heart it still!

Oh AND Jenny gave me four knitted squares, my sister left one before she left a few weeks ago and my mother's coworker gave me 8 crocheted squares. YAY! Getting closer to being able to put this together!

I have learned that early elementary is not the place for me. I do not deal well with boogers and wet pants. OMG, please don't touch me with those hands! It was awful.

I just ripped the seams out of a favorite pair of underpants that were nearing the trash. I'm going to copy the pattern and try to make a new pair. And I JUST put away my sewing machine. Sigh.

Nights 2 and 3: Rockabilly Ball 2007

I have to say, I'm rather disappointed. The line up this year just wasn't very good. I really feel the whole thing has gone downhill. Yeah, I danced but I wasn't inspired to. There just wasn't anything else to do. I want to see bands like Cari Lee and the Saddle-ites, Marti Brom, Carlos and the Bandidos....real rockabilly...not this stuff people are calling psychobilly (which isn't even that, it's just bad punk with an upright bass).

I did make a new dress on Friday. I LOVE how it turned out. I used stash fabric and a pattern I already had so I only bought a zipper and hook & eyes. I didn't get any compliments on it though. Seriously, none. I don't know what that was about. I did not wear the tan dress pictured below but instead the turquoise early 60's one. It was a matter of placement of the darts and how they appeared under my sweater. mmhmm.

Hopefully I will get pictures from friends soon.

Crabby Sweater

This is my newest refashion. Originally, a pull over sweater that was ill fitting and too short, I cut it up the middle, bound it with bias tape and embroidered a crab and a sea horse on the front. I'm contemplating putting a nudibranch on the back shoulder. I'm also on the fence about putting buttons or not. I like the simplicity of it.

new pictures same dress

I took some action shots of my dress today. I look really pale . . .

Also, I made pants! They were my practice pants and I made them! I got the pattern from JoAnn's for 1.99 and the fabric I had just sitting in a drawer. I tried to take pictures but they weren't coming out very flattering. Hopefully, the pants look better in real life.

Before and after pleated dress

Before: drop waist pleated shirt dress

After: regular waist pleated shirt dress. More pleats in the back to adjust for size difference between hips and waist. I plan on adding a sash and that will make the back look bustled.

sew right

High on muscle relaxers and barely awake I went to my first reconstruction sewing class. I brought my dress that I had originally made with a drop waist and we are taking it up to a regular waist. I'm super excited.

I was teased about my original construction not being symmetrical. I knew that was the case and tried to take the teasing with a grain of salt. My instructor is pretty hard core about doing those extra little steps people like me skip. At first I was kind of annoyed, but then I realized this is going to make me a much better sewer and it's not just about fixing this one dress, it's about learning how the techniques to do it again.

I only took half a muscle relaxer today, which means I'm awake, but my back still hurts. : (

Before and after, owl skirt

This is a skirt I got who knows when. I know I wore it in 2000 or so. It has been sitting in a bag to go to Goodwill for months.

Yesterday it went from this phase to....



Today it got it's final addition:

Here's a close up of my owl:


It has button eyes that aren't showing up very well in this shot. Also, ignore the poor ironing, I'm still working on that. ; )