Craft Rage

I'm not much into astrology (which means that I read my horoscope daily, but for amusement purposes only) but as far as it goes, I'm a fairly typical Leo (which actually got me fired from a job, once - funny story, but we'll get to that later). I'm kinda loud, kinda passionate/emotional, that sort of thing.

The thing is, my personality and my clothing have never really matched - I'm REALLY plain jane in what I wear, so though I'm attracted to things that sparkle, I don't actually wear much of it. That said, I guess for my reception, denim skorts and a t-shirt probably wouldn't be completely appropriate. Still, I really wonder if this might be too much sparkle for a reception dress;I found this at Anna's Bridal Lace & Fabrics on Ebay, and was immediately smitten. With it, I could avoid sequins altogether. That would be nice, since the thought of sewing even one more sequin on lace makes me want to weep. And angers the finger puppets. Well, not the Vulcan one, because he's pretty even-tempered, but the other one is quite wrathful.

Which reminds me, I never posted the pictures of the beadwork I completed before deciding to change the color of my dress from green to gold.

I'm in the process of removing the beads and sequins, but here's part of one flower and the scalloped border. Please remember that I'm new to beading, and if I recall correctly, this is one of the first flowers I did.Originally, it had silver seed beads and swarovski crystals in the middle of the flowers, but they've since been removed, so you can only see them on the scalloped edge.

In any case, I do have a huge glut of a light gold crepe-back satin (about 20m - it's shiny, I'm a crow, ergo, when it went on sale for $1.99, I bought what was left on the bolt), so all I really have left to purchase is the lace. I need about 3.5m (about 4 yards) and then I'll be ready to get to work.

The lace isn't my only problem, though.

Stupid, stupid, stupid cat. This is Boobah.Uh, yeah. He's dressed for Hallowe'en. He's SpiderCat. Don't laugh. Okay, laugh.

Anyway, every time I deep-clean the house, Boobah rips off part of his face. No exaggeration - he peels off flesh. If gross pictures make you queasy, feel free to stop reading here - picture to follow.

In the spring, he removed the hair and a few layers of flesh from around his mouth, and last week, while I was preparing to have the in-laws over for the weekend, he did this;That collar is Boobah's personal version of hell - he backed up for a full day before finally realizing that no amount of backwards motion was going to free him.

I hate that I did this to him - obviously when I clean the house, it stresses him out. I know it's not the cleansers - I use the same things all the time, and unless I vaccum behind the furniture, pull out the stove and fridge, and catch up all of the laundry, he doesn't appear to be bothered in any way.

WTF? Seriously!?

I realize that cats' brains are about the size of walnuts, and that euclidean geometry is largely lost on them, but for a cat, Boobah is pretty smart. If he had opposable thumbs, I think he could easily handle some of the grocery shopping. Well, he can't read or drive, but...anyway, why isn't he smart enough NOT to flay himself when I clean the house?

Stupid, stupid cat.

He's sitting here staring at me, and I'm pretty sure he's thinking "Why don't you stop typing and go use your opposable thumbs to open a can of tuna, jerk?" I guess it's the least I can do.

Labels: cats, smooshy, wedding dress

Howdy!

Well, Smooshy's surgery went well, and outside of being treated like a leper by our other cats for two days, she's just fine. Still on the outskirts of the cat family, but fine.

Yesterday at around 3:30, I decided to take a sewing break. My mind was mush, and I needed something that wouldn't require a great deal of thought. I put on my MP3 player, loaded a book to listen to, and by 7:00, I'd made this;

I have a bin full of short-cuts & remnants of 1 metre to 1.5 metres in length. This was a 1 metre cut of 60" fabric - it's brushed rayon or something, it's got a lot of body, but it's very soft to the touch, and fairly drapey.

I ripped up 6, 6" strips, and used three for the bottom ruffle, two for the middle ruffle, and one for the waistband (not shown). I used my ruffler foot to make the gathers in the bottom ruffle and middle ruffle, then sewed the two levels together. The top of the skirt is essentially the rest of the fabric, sewn in a tube up the back, with an invisible zipper at the top. I fit the waist by pinching the excess and marking it with chalk, then darting and cutting as necessary.

I'm really pleased with the results - this is definitely a skirt I'll wear in public. It's far from perfect - the centre seam on the middle ruffle is REALLY obvious, though I don't really care - that's easy enough to fix.

It would have gone much faster if I hadn't spent so much time fiddling around with my ruffler foot - that thing is just so darned much fun! I made ruffles out of every scrap of fabric laying around, just to figure out the length and depth of the ruffles for this skirt. I think this might be a 1.5 hour skirt, start to finish, and less if I just put in an elastic waistband, which I might do the next time around.

Note to self; wear more skirts.

And finally;

We put the towel down so that Smooshy would have someplace cozy to sleep - for whatever reason, she loves terry cloth. Unfortunately, Boobah (the black cat) and Bonzo (the fluffy one) also like terry cloth. And each other. Like I said, Smooshy's still on the outskirts of the cat family.

Labels: projects, smooshy

I LOVE GARAGE SALES!!

Okay. I'm one of those people who tries to be careful about throwing the word "love" around. I know, it's weird. Put it on the list of the many things about me that are unexplainable. I tell my family and my fiance, and yes, my cats, that I love them, all the time. I even have a super-duper high-school friend whom I love greatly, and have told her so, without any creepiness. Well, maybe a bit of creepiness, but then we laughed hysterically and went to the thrift store.

There are people (pets count here) I love, and things I love, and I never mix the two up. It's always people first, then things. At least in this, I have my priorities in order. Now if only I could remember that it's groceries first, and THEN fabric, not fabric first, and THEN groceries, I'd be much more popular at home.

Many of the things I love are both mundane and ridiculous - "The Cutting Edge" is a great example of that. I can't explain why I love this movie, I just know that when I wipe out, or see someone else wipe out, the urge to scream "TOEPICK!" is almost crippling. In addition, I love peridots, and The Thomas Crown Affair, and corsets, and containers - oh, how I love things that hold things! Many years ago I took a solo trip to the southern US, and on my last day, I stumbled across The Container Store. I nearly cried when I realized I had no room in my luggage to bring some containers home.

Even above the container fetish, though, is my complete and utter love of people who lay their castoffs out on their lawn, driveway, or garage, for me to paw through. That's why Garage Sale Season is probably my favorite time of the year. As soon as the weather settles, and the last snow is a couple of weeks behind us, everyone in the city I live near cleans out their closets and attics, and lays everything out on their lawn, or in jumbled heaps in their driveway and garage.

They spend the day sitting in their driveway, smiling at strangers, chatting about the weather, joking about whether or not we've really seen the last of the snow, and complaining about the government (that's how we roll in our prairie city).

I enjoy jockeying for a parking spot and getting out of my car, pockets full of change and small bills, and pawing through stuff that people have held on to, sometimes for fifty years or more. I'm not kind - sometimes I laugh right out loud when I see that someone (other than my dad) actually bought a Thighmaster.

I also get a kick out of people who attempt to sell used items at nearly the same price as you would pay for a new one - witness, the woman who had a stack of really dirty old curling irons tagged at $10.00 each. What? You can get a brand new, cootie-free curling iron for $9.99, and I, for one, will not pay extra for clumps of someone elses' hair.

I bought two of my favorite sewing machines this way - a Singer and a White. I paid $10.00 for the Singer and $8.00 for the White, and both of them work like a charm - I recently gave the White to my mom so she could sew heavy tent canvas, and the thing runs like a freight train - the best $8.00 ever, maybe? I bought a large stack (14 in all) of sewing books, including a number of volumes of the Singer Sewing Reference Library, for $3.00.

This weekend, I got everything shown here for $4.75; (click for larger view)

There are a few things I don't even know how to use properly, like the transfer patterns on the top right, and the two yards of drawcord elastic. The clip-on garters I understand, though what I'd clip them to is beyond me - I wonder if there's a market for them on ebay? Some of the zippers in the pile were obviously removed from other garments, but at least 3/4 of them are brand new and unused, or appear that way.

I've been looking for a pattern for a jewelery roll, without much success - my plan is to pick apart the one in the picture, and make my own pattern, once I understand how this one is assembled.

In that same vein, I got this for $4.00;

I've been struggling to make my own crinoline, and I've assembled and disassembled one a number of times, not really sure if what I was doing was correct. Now that I actually have one in my hands, I know! Plus, this one actually fits me, so I have one to wear while I try to make another!

In addition to all that, I occasionally find some really great vintage patterns. Lately, I've come across a number of patterns for little girl dresses, like these;

I don't actually have children, and when I do, it's likely it'll be a boy - my fiance's family has had nothing BUT boys for three generations, and if I remember 11th grade biology, the sex of a baby is decided by the father, but even so, I couldn't resist picking up these patterns. I'm not normally a very acquisitive person, but really, since I started sewing, all bets are off. Plus, when the lady offered me the whole box (there were 16 in total, most of them 50's and 60's dresses and blouses in sizes 10 and 12) for $2.00, I could NOT say no.

Now that I have them at home and have had a chance to stare at them, I want to make the little sailor dress (bottom right) SO MUCH. Maybe I can adapt it to fit one of the cats. I'm never sure - does dressing up your cats count as animal cruelty, or is it just cute? In any case, I'm off to check the newspaper - that's where I'll find out where all the good sales are going to be next weekend! I'll leave you with this;

Hee hee! They're spooning!

Labels: great deals, smooshy

I've noticed that I've been getting more comments on my posts lately, and I wanted to take a moment to thank you all so much for reading, and for sharing your thoughts with me.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is sort of a "secret" blog - none of my local friends know I do it. Like Karen, when I talk about sewing, most of my friends' eyes glaze over, or else they openly laugh at me. Which actually, I'm okay with, even though it sounds like they're being very mean - it's my own fault for telling them about the first garment I ever made for myself. I was 13, and it was a dress for a Christmas party. It started to fall apart around 8:00, and by the time I went home at midnight, it was held together by staples. I'd laugh at me, too, if I were them.

As you all know, blogging is a strange blend of personal and private, and while you'd do it no matter what because its lovely to have an outlet, it's the comments that make it fun.

Luckily for me, the crowd of commenters I have to thank this time is relatively small. My thanks go out to Cidell, Amanda, who posts at Sew Retro, Brooke, Karen, Moxie Tonic, Kristin, Jemimabean, Keely, Shannon, and Jenny, as well as those I can't seem to find a link to, Karen, Shar, and Cantor.

As well, I sincerely appreciate those who visit but don't comment - I read all the blogs on my blogroll first thing every morning, and then again late in the afternoon, and I don't always get to leave comments either. Your presence is enough!

Two recent comments I wanted to reply to, though;

Jenny, thanks for your kind words about my patternless corset outfit! I'll post new pictures once I get the outfit completed, and show before and after - it's already changed a bit, for the better, I hope! Make sure you post the swimsuit fabric you decide on - I don't want to be TOO much of a copycat! :)

Kristin, I actually appreciate unsolicited advice - if I haven't solicited it, it's likely because I'm not sure what questions to ask, newbie that I am! I've heard that Vogue patterns can be...uh...well, awful to put together - I checked Pattern Review and got the scoop on a couple of the patterns I selected, as well as a few others I'd originally chosen, and they said exactly what you did - OUCH! In the end, I culled a list of 22 Vogue patterns down to the ones I posted, just because of that, and I'm glad I did.

I'm still a little stunned that I bought the V2928 - it's the only advanced pattern I bought, I think. The fact that there were no reviews of the 2928 on PR before I bought it (or now, for that matter!) makes me feel a bit scared, but what the heck - maybe I'll become the Crazy Cat And Pattern Lady - I'll walk around town with a purse full of cats and sewing patterns too advanced for me to attempt, muttering to myself and throwing empty spools at passing children. It's nice to have goals!

Anyway, thanks again, everyone!

Oh, and one last thing - you haven't seen Smooshy for awhile, so I thought I'd leave you with this;

I often have to remind my fiance that ugly kittens still have a hope of being handsome cats! Meh, we didn't get her for her looks anyway, we got her 'cause she's got a funny personality. Well, that and because she was probably two days away from a sack in the river.

Labels: smooshy, thanks

Well, yesterday, Smooshy was both very hyper and very lethargic, in waves. Finally, last night at about 5:00, I picked her up and put her in her bed in the cat tree, and at 6:30, she woke up and started rubbing her eye. I went and picked her up, and found a lump under her eyelid the size of a small grape.

Obviously, I called the vet and rushed her to the university veterinary hospital, which is the only place in town to get after-hours pet care, and this is what she looked like four hours later;

I'll spare you the details, but the vet said she's "experiencing discomfort", but that she's not in any pain. No, the pain is for me to feel, both in my heart (gah, mushy!), and all over my arms, every eight hours, as I get to hold her down and administer antibacterial goo to both her eyes.

On a positive note, all the other cats quite like the fact that her little kitten teeth are penned in, and that it's harder for her to steal their food. Although, judging by these pictures, she's found a way around the problem.

Labels: smooshy

Well, I've been the worst blogger ever!

I pretty much went offline for about a month - this holiday season has been particularly hectic, what with work, a sick cat, and general Christmas stress.

Smooshy developed a weird sneeze, and her eyes started to swell up, so I took her in to see the vet. It's just a little upper respiratory infection, common in kittens from barn cats, I'm told, and easy to clear up with a little medication. Plus, it was time for deworming anyway, so I was also given a pill to feed her - I should have taken a picture of the thing -it was as big as her head! Okay, not as big as her head, but it certainly wouldn't fit into her mouth - I had to break it into pieces and feed them to her a bit at a time.

Have you ever tried to feed a pill to a kitten? I liken the experience to cleaning a garberator with your bare hands. A garberator that really wishes you would just leave it alone. I'm scarred for life, but at least Smooshy isn't also Wormy.

She's also a cheap date - we bought our cats all sorts of fun and exciting cat toys, but the thing she liked best was this pink foam bag that my little boom-box came in;

As far as work goes, as I mentioned, I quit my job back in November, to start my own bookkeeping practice. The practice has been doing very well; between clients I picked up from my Dad and the ones I've picked up on my own, I'm working a little more than full time, and I love it! I won't bore you with accounting stories, because yesterday I related my harrowing experience with a bunch of bank reconciliations to a friend, and his eyes glazed over almost instantly, but I will say this; I enjoy working from home.

The best part of working from home, of course, is that my commute is pretty short (from bed to my desk is about 40 feet), and I get to come to work in my jammies. Now if only I could make myself jammies like these, I'd be laughing!

Besides gaining two hours a day of getting ready/commuting time, are other payoffs, too, financial ones - I don't spend money on coffee or lunch anymore, I only gas up my car once every two weeks or so, and I don't stop to go shopping at Fabricland on the way home from work, so my spending is WAY down. I have time to cook meals, rather than eating everything out of freezer bags, and my dishes and laundry get done way more often. There are some sad parts, too, though - I REALLY miss the great people I used to work with, and although we talk on the phone and get together for lunch, I miss out on all the day-to-day laughs that working with "The Mean Team" provided.

At the end of the day, I'm working more, commuting less, and am never more than 50 feet away from my sewing room, but all I seem to have time to do is stare into it longingly, and dream of cutting fabric. Soon, though - by next week, everything should have slowed down enough for me to put together a schedule that includes time in the sewing room!

I also got spoiled rotten for Christmas, and I have to admit, I'm really yearning to play with my new toys. Among other things, I got a new laptop (one of the HUGE ones with a 17" widescreen), a Cuttlebug (embossing machine/die cutter), and this thing, which I'm sure has a name, but all I've been calling it is "the hoop-holder". I got this fancy new beading tool on sale awhile back, but wasn't able to use because it requires two hands just to do the beading. I might try something tonight, because I've been aching to make something sparkly for no purpose.

Which reminds me! The pattern for the walkaway dress that I purchased back in December finally came two days ago - I love getting mail!

Three pattern pieces - I think I can do it! I wonder if I shouldn't try making a crinoline first - I have yards and yards of tulle that I picked up on sale...how hard can it be?

Labels: smooshy

Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ. I am an idiot. This was the dumbest idea I've ever had. This, dear reader (assuming there's someone reading this other than me, which there probably isn't, because who wants to read the blog of a jackass who's chock full of dumb ideas and can only write in run-on sentences), is an idea strained through the Crap Sieve. A perfectly great notion - gosh, I wish I had more space, turned into a small slice of the seventh circle of hell - let's completely swap two rooms, but not empty them first - we'll just move things from room to room one lousy piece of shit item at a time. My new craft room floor is layered with about six inches of junk I should never have kept. I'm writing this post in order to avoid the inevitable horror of sifting through it all.

Plus, I stepped on Smooshy. She's fine - in reality, I felt her fur with my foot before I put any weight on her at all - but really, it could have gone very badly. So once again, I can only look at the bright side. I still have four live cats in the house. Which reminds me, I need to clean the litter boxes. Maybe I'll do that instead of going back to my sewing room.

Labels: sewing room, smooshy

This sucks. This really, really sucks. I lament this crazy idea of swapping rooms between my office and craft room. What was I thinking? Did I really need the extra ten feet of space in my craft room? Why does it look like this now?

I think my soul just died a little bit.

I keep thinking - "It's worth it, it's worth it - you'll have access to all of your machines, you'll be able to put your stupid dress on your stupid dressform, you'll be able to dance a jig and twirl in circles singing 'This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!'"

Cripes. Who needs a jig. And I frigging hate that song anyway.

On the happy side, Smooshy is still Smooshy, not Unspeakable Stain. Sort of a bad news/good news type of thing!

Labels: sewing room, smooshy

So I ended the last post saying that I'd be cleaning up my sewing room. As it turns out, I lied.

Not only did I NOT clean up my room, I actually made it worse. There's a method to my madness, though. Either I'll make such a terrible mess that the Punishment Fairies my mother warned me about will come and take away all my lovely fabric, or I'll be moving everything from my smallish craft room (8' x 7') to my larger (10' x 7.5') office.

I don't really need very much floor space in my office - it's only my desk and all my assorted printer tables and filing cabinets, however, I need as much floor space as I can get for my sewing room, because I have a sewing cabinet, a large folding cutting table, a dress form, and nine hundred thousand million clear plastic totes full of fabric. Okay, maybe not nine hundred thousand million, but lots.

The reason for the move is scary/exciting. You see, I went ahead and fulfilled Johnny Paycheck's dream, and told my boss to Take This Job And Shove It. Well, realistically, I was more polite than that, and I even gave two week's notice, because I'm only a little bit of a jerk, not a total jerk.

In any event, I need to completely reorganize my office and clear out all the sewing stuff that's taken up residence in the larger room. Since there's actually no room for it elsewhere, I'm going to consolidate all office stuff in the room that used to be my sewing room, and all my sewing stuff in my old office. And boy, are you ever bored with my oversharing!

Anyway, I'm going to do the complete swap tomorrow. With any luck, I will not drop another sewing machine on my foot (won't matter, I'm wearing steel toed boots just in case), I will not set the house on fire, and I will not accidentally step on my new kitten. Of course, I made a bunch of promises at the end of the last post and they didn't turn out so well. We'll see!

In the meantime, meet Smooshy the Kitten, who will hopefully make it through tomorrow without a name change to "That Strange Stain On The Carpet By The Sewing Room"!

Labels: sewing room, smooshy