Blah Diddy Blah Blah Blah

My first attempt at jeans... didn't go well. The legs fit fine, but the waistline wouldn't fit unless I suddenly became nine months pregnant with twins. The top stitching was wobbly. Lets not even talk about the zipper. I was using the pattern that came with the book "Sew U." I never even finished them, I eventually just threw the jeans away.

Well, recently I got a horrible ink stain on a pair of jeans. Considering the dress code at work is officially casual, I needed new jeans, stat.

Unfortunately, I'm kind of an odd size. CONTRARY TO WHAT EVERYONE THINKS it is actually just as hard for a skinny person to find pants as everyone else. Pants are evil. I found one pair of jeans in my size that didn't have some sort of ridiculous "super-low rise." Ew. Just... ew.

So I returned to the jeans pattern, but with way more knowledge than I had the first time around.

Oh boy, they're cute! And they fit! Hooray! There's pretty topstitching, and instead of a zipper I figured how how to do a button fly (it's a little gappy, but not bad enough to not wear) I drafted my own pockets. There's rivets and nail buttons. I embroidered the back pockets with matching hummingbirds. And they fit! No gappy back! Hooray! Pictures will follow.

HOORAY!

Good gravy, I love Halloween. And this year I'm actually getting costumes ready more than a day in advance. The past two years I got my halloween costumes on the 30th or 31st. Yay! And there's even THOUGHT put into the costume, and I'm getting all matchy-matchy with Nick, too. Awwwww... even though it means I need to make a second costume so we can do the matchy matchy thing.

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This is kind of neat, though I wish that it gave a reason for the analysis. I tried it with a few different bits of writing and got different answers.

The Story of Mina Carter (a character sketch for an RPG Nick is working on)




The Seven Magics (a novel I've been working on off and on since grade nine)





Who Hunts the Hunter (formerly posted on my journal somewhere as "The Crimson Arrow and the Blue Bullet)




My most recent blog post (before this one)



(apparently, mono is the stuff of madness. Who knew?)

Frosted Freedom (a really short story about pouring a bowl of Lucky Charms; also, it's about growing up and independence)





And all of them pasted together...




Too bad I don't like James Joyce.

About three weeks ago, I lost my voice. Completely. Not a squeak would come out.

"This be weird," says I. ( Collapse )

You read that right, ladies and gentlemen. I finished Nick's pirate coat.

It's PRETTY!

From Nick's Pirate Coat

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Now, what the heck am I going to sew next?

I woke up this morning and started to head downstairs for breakfast. As I passed the spare room, I found that things I KNOW had been in drawers in my room had been taken and carefully placed on the bed.

Ha ha ha, you say. What a wacky April Fools prank! Someone is rearranging your stuff while you sleep! Oh what hilarious japes!

The problem is, I was the only one in the house last night. The doors and windows are all closed and locked.

However, I know I used to sleepwalk as a kid. My Mom told me about a couple of times when she'd see me wandering around the house late at night that I didn't remember at all the next morning. So I'm guessing that I've started sleepwalking and in my sleep I took things from my drawers, moved them to the other room, went back to my room, closed the drawers and went back to bed. Yay.

My only conclusion is that I have managed to play an April Fools day joke on myself. And I have SERIOUSLY WEIRDED MYSELF OUT!!!!

Last night, Nick, Heather and I sat down and started watching Glee.

At six in the morning we had watched the first eight episodes and were able to sing the closing credits music in thee part harmony. We are so cool.

Mwahaha... I defeated the pocket!

I had to do it about FOUR TIMES, but in the end I successfully made a pocket that actually holds stuff and isn't a big old saggy mess. It's a moderately sized mess, and I'm fairly certain that no one but myself and possibly my Dad would notice. (That's right, Dad, I KNOW you always look for loose threads on anything I show you!)

Now I've got to do it again *thumps head on desk*

Merrily I was sewing along. I actually finished one of the chalk bags that was supposed to be the sisterly one and the sisterly one's fiance's Christmas presents. I have everything cut out and ready to go for the other- I just had to locate my elastic (which I bought last week and only found earlier today, but that's another story).

Any way, I was so proud of myself for the bags, that I took out the green velvet for Nick's pirate coat. I got all the major pieces cut out of the velvet- fronts, backs, sleeves, cuffs and facings. I attached the facings to the lining (which has been done for a long time) so it's all ready to do the fancy shmancy "bag lining" thing.

I was about to start assembling the actual outside piece. Step one- pockets!

Now, I've never done pockets properly before. I did them on MY pirate coat, but they were a) far too high and b) a royal ugly mess. I thought I had them figured out. Luckily, I tried it on scraps first! Ugh. What I ended up making is not even vaguely rescuable. The problem is, I believe, that the instructions I'm attempting to follow have all the pieces of fabric and the thread in exactly the same colour. Sure, this may be the "proper" way to do it, but it sure as heck doesn't photograph well!

My attempt has now been thrown across the room in a fit of rage. I don't want to work on the coat at all right now. Maybe I'll feel better if I finish the bag.

That was a new experience.

Last night I performed at the opening gala for the new exhibit of chopines at the Bata Shoe Museum. I got to wear my pretty new dress (go back a post for the pictures) which is a real treat to try and get on the subway at rush hour, ( Collapse )