Craft Rage

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I'm not a pink person - as a colour, I respect pink, and understand why people like it. Aesthetically, it's not a bad color - it doesn't offend my eye; in fact, I actually like it. It's just that when I think of wearing pink, I think of frilly, useless girls with mean smiles and feathered hair. Maybe I have some repressed memories of being beaten up in the playground at recess. All I really know is that when I buy clothes, I don't buy pink.

So why, why, WHY, did I buy five different fabrics in pink? Of the 51 metres of fabric I purchased on Friday, 19 metres of it is various shades of pink. Like these;

Now admittedly, the lightest unprinted one is for lining skirts and such - it's charmeuse, I think, and I bought it because it feels lovely and light, and the feel of normal lining fabric makes me cringe. But the rest aren't really the kind of fabrics you hide under other things. Apparently, I will be wearing more pink in the future.

In fact, it's already started. Last time Fabricland had a birthday sale, I was REALLY new to the idea of sewing, and I knew I'd need some junk fabric to test on, so I bought a bunch of fabric without really looking at it - I just bought different KINDS of fabric, with no thought at all to colour, because it was unlikely that any of that fabric would go into anything I could actually wear in public anyway. Amongst my junk stash, I had this pink and white tulip fabric on a black background, and this weekend, in a fury of creativity, I made it into a skirt. I figured that since I've broken the seal on pink, I might as well embrace it.<\p>

It's the skirt from Butterick 4468, a summer wardrobe pattern that I picked up, uncut and factory folded, for .69 cents at Value Village.

It's bias cut, lined with that light pink charmeuse, and I put that weird rolled hem thing on it by going round and round the hem with a tight zigzag stitch under my embroidery foot. The inside is finished, though sort of ugly, because I didn't follow the instructions well, and made it up as I go along. That's kind of my thing - making it up as I go along. You'll see that in my next post. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes not. In this case, I think it's a not. See, because I was in a sewing frenzy, I didn't really stop and see how it fit. The fit is actually fine along the waistline and hips, but the length is REALLY bad - it stops at the widest part of my calf. Not pretty.

I have named this length "buffet length" because if I hike the waistband up and tuck it into the bottom of my bra, the hemline sits at just the right hight, skimming the tops of my kneecaps, and actually looks very cute. But without the waistband sitting at my waist, I can eat my own body weight in watermelon and egg rolls. Perfect for the buffet!<\p>

Labels: stash, the colour pink

I already had a fairly good-sized stash. I don't know what came over me. It's been a busy month, what with the trip to Mexico (ohhhh, so awesome!) and then all the catch-up work when I returned (ohhhh, so much work!).

The thing is, I am a Fabricland member, so whenever there's a big sale in the offing, I get a call on my cell phone. I normally try to avoid these calls - the last time I picked up, I took home 60 metres (65 yards) of taffeta, not to mention 15 metres of toile and a bunch of other assorted notions and thread.

Only this time, when the call came, it didn't show up on my call display as "Fabricland" - it showed as "OOOOOOO". So of course, not knowing anyone named OOOOOOO, I picked up out of sheer curiousity. Sheer, get it? Ha. Yeah, that wasn't actually funny, I know. I'm just stunned. Humor me.

I bought 51 metres of fabric, eleven Simplicity patterns, nine invisible zippers in a range of colors, a huge amount of thread, a hot-fix applicator and some crystals, and a super fun tote bag that says "Sewing is my bag!" I am so ashamed! And excited!!

I fell off the wagon, and it barely even hurt. And what's more, I'm fighting the yearning to drive into town RIGHT THIS MINUTE and buy more.

I won't though. I swear!

Labels: stash

I admit it - I let myself get distracted.

I think I may have mentioned my plan to make two wedding dresses - the Pink Abomination is the mock up of one of them. Well, now that it's near completion, I've started on the mock-up of my second dress, the poofy one, by drafting a corset.

Unfortunately, I'll have to post pics later, because I barely have time to write this post now, because my fiance and I are going to Mexico!! I'm pretty freaking excited, because while I've been there before, it was only during driving trips, so I've only ever been to border towns. We're doing this last-minute thing, which means that I have to complete twelve days' worth of work in four days, because I absolutely won't keep clients waiting on their taxes while I jet off on vacation.

We get back on the 14th, and I'll post pictures of the corset and it's construction - it actually worked out surprisingly well, though I need to redraft the bust a bit - it's making "the girls" look kind of square and scary.

Yay! Mexico!