I’m looking a bit angry in this photo. Pay it no mind.

So the pattern calls for lt.wt crepe, lt wt pique, or lt wt linen.
I found a gorgeous purple silk chiffon that I want to use instead. can I use it and then use linen for the lining? Or will I regret going against the pattern instructions?

The skirt is bias cut and it’s not like chiffon has no drape… but sewing chiffon is still tricky for me and I have no idea about pairing something super drapey with something less so like linen.

I checked my closet and I have one dress in see through polyester chiffon that has a silky sort of lining. So the dress has no form at all. and I have one dress that has the same collar shape as this one with and it is made out of stretch cotton and it works fine.

So, in conclusion, I believe I will just try it out. I shall wake up Jack and go to the fabric store. I have a whole four day weekend coming up in which to sew this. And work on all my other commitments.

I think I have too much going on. When am I going to find time to make spats for upcoming holiday shows. I keep having horrid flashes of no one buying my spats. So far that hasn’t happened but it’s still nightmare fuel. I have some cute new designs I am going to do once I get around to getting the sewing done.

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The universe is laughing up it’s sleeve at me. Some time last week I was on the phone with a friend telling her all about my new improved shit togetherness. “Yeah,” I said, “This time around I have my shit together I started gathering it WEEKS ago.” *pats self on back*

FF to today. In getting some of my shit together I neglected other parts of getting ready to the point of head in sand, didn’t even read emails etc.

I’m not stressed though… It will all work out and plus I am very excited! Although I did lose my shit this morning when the baby sitter did not show up and so I missed my hair appointment and it totally fucked all my other plans for the day. I survived. It was very hard to mentally shift gears but I managed it and I swallowed my disappointment like a grown up curled up on the couch in tears.

Look, I got new business cards!

I changed my blog template to match!

Also, the skirt I am making is SO CUTE! I will post photos tomorrow and I’m working on my skirt tutorial as well. Maybe it will be done tomorrow too.

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I finished my dress except for a few odd threads that need to be trimmed oh and I really should stitch down the back of the collar.

I finished it last night and suddenly had a very let down feeling, like, THIS IS IT?! BAH HUMBUG. hand making shit is for CHUMPS. But then I put it on today and had a sort of happy feeling and I felt pleased with myself and it made me cheerful and I wore it around the house all afternoon with some cute Fluevogs. I took some pictures… have you ever tried taking self timed pictures with a toddler around? yeah, it doesn’t work so well.

This is the first picture I took. you can see the skirt of the dress peeking out in the right of the picture. I’m surprised that you don’t see a giant grubby baby hand coming right for the lens.

Here, I figured out that I needed to wisk him into the picture with me to keep him from mauling the camera. He’s so sweet. We are sharing a cold right now.

I probably won’t make this pattern again,like I said in a previous post, the collar construction was needlessly complicated and I am sure I can find a shirt dress that has less collar pieces. So I learned that my sewing teacher was right when she said to always take the pattern instruction out and read them BEFORE you buy a pattern.

I did end up using snaps and I like it very much although next time I will make sure to place a snap right at the nipple line and I will take more time hemming.

I’m excited to move on to a new project. BUT WHAT WILL IT BE? I purchased 47 buttloads of this cute chiffon with birds all over it. it was WAY on sale and I knew that I would want to make many things with it AND I am taking a ‘how to sew with slippery filmy fabrics’ class. But will 10 yards be enough, she wonders?

I think I will make a simple skirt using this cute black and red corduroy I have had in my stash for about forever.

RECAP of dress posts – Making McCall’s 4769 Dress Pattern

beginning the dress – part one
working on my dress – part two
my dress an update – part three
is working on her dress – part four

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The piece I have left to sew is the next collar point piece. I think that the front facing and collar on this dress were needlessly complicated AND the worst part is that when I was ironing on the fusible interfacing I kept messing it up and finally I was like, “fuck this noise, I’m moving on.” And now I am paying the price because the facing pieces are sort of rumply and the interfacing is coming off. The second I wash this dress that shit is going to fall right off. SONOFABITCH!

I keep day dreaming about the NEXT thing that I am going to sew and how rad it will be. hahahaha. I have to stop myself from abandoning this dress.

I’m thinking of ways I could salvage the facing problem, I could rip it all off or I could quilt it. man, I have no clue. I decided to use white pearly snaps applied with my fancy new industrial snap putter oner. I’ll try to finish it tonight or tomorrow.

Look at all the cute dresses on this site: http://www.angelfire.com/planet/getgoretro/dresses.html!

crappy blurry picture of my dress in progress:

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Months ago I had a huge tearful saga about the sleeves. Who knew sleeves were such little bitches? I had made a pattern adjustment ot the sleeves but when it came time to sew them in they seemed HUGE. So I at first assumed that I had fucked up the adjustment and I went through this absurd range of emotions. Mostly about how I was DOOMED TO FAIL. Recriminations about my idiocy and incompetence were flung at my head, there were tears involved and a certainty that I would never succeed at anything EVER in my entire life. Sometimes I wonder how I have made it this far in life…

But as it turns out the adjustments were correct and I am NOT DOOMED. Cap sleeves are apparently a bitch and take practice (shocker) and there is a crapload of ironing involved.

The sleeves are done and came out pretty well with only a little bit of accidental pleating. Now, I am on the collar and front facing.

I have another sinking feeling that it isn’t going to fit very well also that it is too busy with the bird fabric. DAMMIT. I feel sad.

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So yeah, it’s a learning process for me.

Craft fairs, what think ye? Is it just me or were there like 45,000 craft fairs this season? I didn’t make it to all of them and missed the stupid crucible one! wtf?! I had it on my calender and the day of I was all, “we’re going to the crucible fair!” and then we didn’t. I don’t know what that’s about.

I did well and had fun at the BB. It is an established fair that gets a good turn out. I also did a tiny craft fair at a bar on Sunday night last. The Okalnd DIY one. It was fun and I could tell that the organizer worked hard to do all the organizing. However, it was at a dumb time and while I loved the venue as a bar it might not attract the right crafty buying sort of crowd. With more and better advertising it could work though. For the most part I was thinking, “WHY am I freezing my ass off in the rain on a Sunday night with the scungiest 20 yr old boy (not quite) hipsters on the planet in this dive bar?!” aHhahahah

Anywho. I’m not sure how people end up making a living doing this or if they actually ever do. Especially with out getting burned out. I’m kind of finally sick of making spats!

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And then I turn around for ONE SECOND.

And all hell breaks loose as Jack grabs the tin and not only turns it upside down but done so in such a  ‘flingy’ way that buttons go into every single crevice possible for button kind. Then the rampaging starts. As I am frozen to the spot in utter horror he takes the opportunity to bend over and spaz his hands in the buttons while shrieking with joy. Then he starts running around and little buttons are stuck to the bottoms of his feet and make little clicking noises. Its hilarious but is such a disaster than I am almost in tears.

I’m racing around trying to gather buttons back up and he is flinging them everywhere making lunges for the tin I am trying to refill and doing a tiny godzilla tap dance of joy every time he moves.

Things will never be the same. Buttons are lost for sure and I see three still over by the dresser right now.

This was on Wednesday I think. So then, yesterday, he and I are in the baby killer craft room and I am sorting through my fabric stash and I come across one of those bags of pom poms that you can buy at Michael’s. You know when you need like 5 pom poms but can only find the HUGE BAG of 1000. So I think, “hahaha, it would funny to give him this bag”. HAHA. Indeed. Now it looks like a clown threw up in my craft room.

Yesterday I was struggling with my addiction. My mind was on buttons as you know and I was itching to try making my own fabric covered ones. So my sponsor happened to call and I confessed my thought crimes. “How can I justify buying one more craft tool? “. I whined. And instead of the voice of reason she’s all, “oh that sounds awesome you should totally go get that!!” Thanks Mom.

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You want a WHAT projector? you mean like those things in movies where the round disks of film whirl around and there’s a lightbulb?

Maybe we’ll all have given up on this internet insanity by then and we’ll be back to bicycling to the local green grocer to pick up our preserves. or whatever.

I mentioned in a recent post that I have my grandmothers button tin. I loved the button tin when I was a kid. Do all kids love a button tin? Do they all love to pick through the colorful buttons just admiring the colors adn the feel of them?Maybe imagining where they came from or things we could use them for?

The thing is, some jerkwad took all the good buttons leaving the all the very boring ones behind. It’s okay, whoever did it will get their comeuppance in HELL. So what did I do? DUH! I went online and bought someone else’s grandmothers button tin. it satisfies my hearts desires. I have started sorting by color. but I COULD sort by size or usefulness or type (shank, 2 holes, 4 holes, extra fancy) or by project. I can reorganize these suckers every damn day if i want.  so maybe I will.

But I am conflicted. PArt of me wants to cram them all willy nilly into the button tin (although, at this point, with all my own buttons, my grandmother AND some else’s grandmother I don’t think they will all fit in one tin) . If they are all willy nilly then i have the kids pleasure of sort thing through it and seeing it as a tin of TREASURE. But as a grown up that isn’t super useful. I need them sorted and organized in some way, possibly even in separate containers. Right now all the blues and greens are in an old jam jar. and the sparkly ones with rhinestones are in an old burt’s bees green goddess mask jar.

I’m a magpie and love shiny things and seriously these buttons give my soul a deep down delicious rich feeling. Is it just me? Or does everyone love a button tin?

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Anyway. It comes prestained as it is one of Vim’s old ratty ones. HIlarious! Vim is super cute when he sews.

Already i have completed a bunch of basic mending tasks that have been sitting around in my sewing room waiting for me. Some for actual YEARS have been waiting to completed. Also many of the decorative stitches have been tested and gloated over.

I swear.. sewing with this thing is sweet. Right now I have it on the kitchen table because the sewing room is in CHAOS as i rearrange and organize. I didn’t want that thing to happen where I put off projects because my room isn’t clean. So for now it’s on the kitchen table.

What shall my next project be!!! I’m thinking I will whip out a bunch of baby blankets and then sew myself a dress.

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I mean, I can totally just sew some fabric together with a zipper and some batting. Is that it? or it there something else i should take into consideration?

I have my awesome laptop bag but somehow I feel like I need a sleeve too. For those times, like right now, when I don’t want to carry my rather large-ish and kinda heavy yet rad orange bag.

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I foresee several factors to my summer this year. One, I have an almost toddler, two, I get hot when it’s like 65 degrees out and finally, I only have two pairs of pants that fit me but about a million skirts and dress that do. You can imagine that if only points two and three were relevant than all would be well but when you add in the toddler unit the shit hits the fan. I mean, you can’t very well be all grubbing around on the floor and running around picking your kid up off the playground floor while in a skirt. It wouldn’t be seemly.

Last year I attempted to buy some split slips. Split slips are the bomb. They keep your thighs from chaffing, they keep you cool, they allow you to grub around on the floor in a slightly more seemly fashion than without them. After an extensive search engine search I finally ordered some super cheap split slips from amazon. They were not perfect. They were so high waisted as to come up to my armpits an they were made out of that suspicious slippery material. nylon or some such. the lace along the bottom was scratchy. I wore them anyway and they were okay but my hear longed for something better.

This year I ordered 18 assloads of black cotton lawn from fabric.com. Lawn is a lovely thin and cool fabric that I mostly associate with the floaty frocks of yesteryear.

I cut up one of the weird slips from amazon to use as a template although this was not a necessary step as really they are just a pair of voluminous boxer shorts. My goals was to make my new slip waist hit below my belly button and the length be a few inches above my knees. Easily accomplished!

After cutting out my fabric I sewed the leg hole together and then put one leg inside the other right sides facing to sew up the crotch. for the elastic I used some of my huge roll that I scored at urban ore a while back. Around each leg I sewed two rows of black cotton eyelet lace.

Ta Da! I will now be cool this summer and won’t flash the other moms at the playground.

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I have made these spats for a friend. Attributes are: exposed brass separating zipper, rubber heel guards, red flannel lining.

Also, a huge glaring pattern mismatch. FUCK! As i was making them i just wasn’t thinking about because usually the spats i make are a solid color or a pattern that doesn’t really need to be matched. so… fuck.

I’m making another pair of cute ones that he can have instead if he wants. a nice tweedy plaid with thai silk lining, brass snaps and a cute button.

My next pair will be ladies green velvet with rounded toe and taller ankles, white pearl buttons and possibly pale pink lining but i havent decided that detail yet.

Also this fucking awesome pink tie material i found at silk road (going out of business sale 20-70% off!) will soon be some ladies spats as well.

oh yeah, I also just got my new labels in the mail! I do love them so!

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Welp, here it is in all it’s glory – the fuckity fuck fuck cross stitch. I’m rather pleased with it.I enjoyed doing the cross stitching even tho I can easily see it making me go blind and get RSI. I’ve been obsessively watching the TV show Jericho while finishing up this project. Crossstitch is good one for zoning out and tv watching.

I wish someone would write up a research paper or get a collection of images for a book detailing the bawdy cross stitch samplers Victorian women used to do. All those bored winter nights were great for stitching up cute little cross stitch cocks. Or the frontiers women and all their upskirt cross stitch samplers.

“Mabel, honey, I’m doing ‘throbbing and veiny’ do you have a good pink I could borrow”?

A good homage would be a cunt coloring book done in cross stitch. Don’t you think?

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However, I decided to do just that in order to make some steampunk inspired spats for Whump. I’ve never amde ones for mens shoes before and for this pair I am doing a rounded toe instead of a split toe like I usually do.

The final product will be made out of black and white houndstooth in a cotton duck fabric and I’ll work in some PVC from my old black vinyl ball gown.

I’m not sure about what to use for a closure. a zipper might actually be cool and would certainly be swankier than my usual quick fix snap closures.

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Welcome my dear.

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For now I am creating it in illustrator. I can save it as a pdf and give it to people, that way, they can print it out at whatever size they need it to be. Tthat seems better than making it like a normal printed pattern where you have like 3 or 4 sizing options.

So it will end up being a basic outline of the pattern pieces and then instructions… and variations. which i have to work out as well. For instance, I have never sewn a button hole (I can bake bread tho, so take that CAPTAIN SMARTY PANTS) so I use that awesome snap trim stuff. oh man, I LURVE that stuff. but other people probably can sew buttons and maybe even actually also have the patience to do it. so I want to have that variation in there. Also, different toe variations. I usually do the split toe thing, but a nice roundy option might be nice too depending on the sort of shoes you want to wear them with.

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I really wanted to put a foul ruffle on the bottom of this one but there wasn’t time. Instead I used the fancy hemming lace to finish off the inside lower hem.

This fabric did not require a french seam but at least I know how to do one now.

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