Rainy movie Sunday

We saw Get Smart (the movie) this afternoon. It wasn't too bad, overall. It wasn't quite like the original tv series but there were definitely some funny bits in there. If you like comedies then you might like this one. I'm sort of watching Hackers as I'm writing this, and it appears to be a pretty funny movie. I didn't know that Penn was in it :) It makes computer tasks, memory, and processes look so cool.

My vintage pattern obsession appears to be running almost unchecked. I have bought some more patterns and hope to bid on another lot in the next few days. There comes a point where I start to wonder if I'm buying more patterns than I need ... especially if I add in all of the new patterns I have. There may come a day when I decide that I need to sell some of the patterns that I have. We'll see; there are only so many patterns I'll be able to sew.

I get to sew some more

Sorry there was no post yesterday - I had Pamidronate and it knocked me out at 7pm. I did wake up at 1am and watched Beneath the Planet of the Apes but when I went to bed afterward at 3am I stayed there until 1pm today. So I was tired.

I've received all of the vintage patterns I ordered, and the person who sent me the last two sent me one additional one. :) Someone on etsy also asked to trade patterns for earrings and I'm definitely not going to say no to that! I get three patterns and I am sending out two pairs of earrings.

Now I just need to get sewing. On Monday, after my doctor's appointments, I stopped by Fabricland and discovered that they were having a sale. So I bought the fabrics that I'd had my eye on... and I have patterns to go with them, too. I'm hoping to have some new stuff made before we go to Lexington, KY for the International Juggler's Association festival. So I have a deadline of sorts, too :)

That etsy is some place

As you know, I list the items I make over on etsy. It's been an ok arrangement so far as I don't pay much to list and their take per sold item is low. I've whined about technical problems there before (they still don't have much in the way of testing before something goes live), but I'm quite disturbed at some things that have been happening lately.

I've always thought of the list of sold items list as a record of what I sold and a snapshot of the item's description/pictures at the time it was sold. I thought that this was a good way to keep track of how things change because it is something that wouldn't change - once an item is sold, it's been sold and the content of the page wouldn't change. Right? After all, if the page changed then I have no recourse if a customer says, "the listing says xxx." I thought that the sold items pages were pretty well inviolate.

Boy, am I wrong. Etsy admin have admitted to changing the content on sold items. There are some other issues surrounding the highest-publicized case, but if you want to read up on this, the information is here. They claim to have done this at least once for DMCA reasons, but that makes no sense to me; in changing the item without identifying that it has been changed, are they not deleting possible evidence? No, they don't add any text to indicate that the content was changed - there's no notice of that at all. I'm shocked and appalled. How could they think that the way they were doing this - let alone that they were doing this at all - was ok? They have a lawyer on staff; did they even consult her or did they just go ahead without thinking? Are they that stupid?

I've tolerated a LOT of technical issues at etsy because I know that they're a young company and they're cheap for me. But now - well, something is so wrong with this picture. Etsy admin are so far refusing to describe a process for doing something like this, probably because they don't have one. They do things in an ad-hoc way and are very, very reluctant to describe processes (they refused for a very long time to describe under what conditions a shop can be shut down due to a single buyer's complaint) so it wouldn't surprise me that they wouldn't have any kind of process in place for this.

It might be time to set something up somewhere else. Not that etsy would care if I left, but I don't know if I want to continue to support a company like this. I have some thinking to do.

Pattern grading fun

You know I've been buying vintage sewing patterns, right? I always have to adjust sewing patterns to fit me but these vintage patterns are almost never the right size even before adjustment. Most times, I can only find a pattern in one size anyways so I don't even try to find one that fits. Tha'ts because measurements were very different, back in the day; in particular, bust measurements were proportionally smaller than hip measurements (they're identical now) and waist measurements were proportionally bigger than they are now. Add to this the fact that every pattern company had different measurement systems and you can see how hard it would be to buy something vintage that came close to fitting.

So I end up having to grade the pattern pieces. Grading is easy if you already have at least two sizes of the same piece, because then you can just extend the pieces along the intersection points if you're only going up or down a size. Lately I've been working on that awesome bodice, and I'm having to grade it 8" up for my bust. That's a lot of change! I'm adding 2" to each of my bodice pieces and if I don't do it right, the design lines will be wrong.

The resource most vintage pattern-sellers point to is this one. It's not bad for one or two size grades. I tried its method with this pattern and then looked at what I had and said to myself, "how can I be increasing the bust by 8" and NOT be changing the length of the underarm seam?" I found a much better resource here - check out the quick reference guide! This one takes into account the fact that the length will change (and not just at the shoulder) and it grades at the shoulder as well.

Hopefully now I can get this stuff right. Yes, I know that in some ways it would be easier to take my measurements, draft a basic block including ease (I now know how to do that - and anyways, I know how much ease is included in this pattern), and do flat-pattern alterations to get what I want. But where's the fun in that? :)

Too many patterns, nothing to do

I was trying to figure out which pattern(s) I should work on today. To do that, I put all of the vintage patterns I've bought together and looked at them. I looked at the patterns, then over at my fabric, and back to my patterns. Sometimes I'd pick up a pattern and look at the back and then I'd put it down again. I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I know that I have a few more patterns that will be arriving soon and I was sad that I might have to wait until one of those arrived before I could play with the patterns.

So I went back upstairs and surfed the internet for a while. After a while I decided that I would take one of the dress patterns that I love and modify it so that it'll look good on me. I'll use the top of this pattern and put a straight skirt on it instead of this flared skirt:



Honestly, I'd love to make the dress as shown, but a skirt that gathers in to the waist just makes me look like a chubby kid. I don't have either the height or the willowy waist to carry off the skirt volume. Still, I love the top and I think that it would look awesome on me, so I'll just change the skirt and hope I come up with something good.

How much is too much bellydancing?

Four hours of bellydance in one day might be a bit too much! I did two workshops today and I'll tell you, my belly is a bit tired :) My undulations were pretty pathetic by the end of the afternoon. I learned a lot and enjoyed the workshops very much; I'm looking forward to the next class in both series.

This evening, Ian and I watched Diary of the Dead, a zombie movie by George Romero. It's one of those first-person video movies, so it has a couple of people with a camera filming what happens when suddenly the dead rise. There are some flaws with the plot (would all the people really disappear in a day or so?), and the acting wasn't always the best, but I liked that the ending was left unresolved. Yes, there are zombies, but we don't know what happens to our people. There was a bit of humour in the movie, too, especially with regard to the zombies being killed.

I was looking at patterns for sale this evening (this is something I do - surf the internet looking for patterns or fabric) and I came across this one:


What I love best about it is that it's really only two pieces, each cut on the fold. I love the way it looks as shown in the stripe. The back is vertically striped and the front diagonally striped. I like this pattern although it would be a pain to grade and alter for my height; it's also most likely unprinted, and I've never used an uncut, unprinted pattern before. I might also want to shorten the sleeves a bit. I'll think about bidding on it.

Me and my ego

I got the pattern grading adjustments done only to realize that I needed to grade only the bust up and not the waist. So I ended up having to take the waist back in, but I managed to do that while keeping the grainlines and design lines intact. Not bad. :)

As I was congratulating myself for figuring this out, I started on the skirt. The skirt as designed has two unpressed pleats/tucks in front that I wanted to turn into darts. You would think, with all my training, help from others (thanks, Mom!), research, and everything, I could do something like this. Don't forget that I was feeling pretty proud of myself... and here was this simple problem stumping me. For some reason I wanted to fold out the excess in the pleats and make them darts when the actual solution is to slash the pattern and overlap the correct amount (the darts will be shortened, of course).

I finished the pattern alterations feeling quite a bit more humble. :) Next up: cutting and sewing!

Coming down with something?

I had planned to get up around 10am today to get some pattern stuff done. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get up until 2pm and I felt icky when I did get up. My sinuses are full, my head hurts, lights are too bright and sounds too loud, and I feel really tired, light-headed, and sick. I suppose I could have allergies or a migraine or something, but I could also be coming down with a cold or flu or something instead. I hope it's only allergies. I've bought some sinus stuff, some advil liqui-gels in case it's a migraine, and some tylenol. One of those should help.

I'm working on the first vintage pattern - I'm able to grade the patterns up just fine, but I'm having trouble applying my height changes to the pattern. It has a kimono sleeve so the sleeve is cut in one with the bodice. Normally I take out 14mm at the half-way point of the armscye and 10mm out of the top of the sleeve cap (this change can be applied to the underarm seam if the sleeve cap is flat). Plus I need to move the shoulder point in by 1/2" - this matters because the bottom of the sleeve has buttons on it and the sleeve will be too long if I don't take the excess out of the shoulder.

So anyways, I'm not quite sure now to apply the above changes. I thought about taking out the horizontal 14mm and dropping the underarm by 4mm, but the shoulder change has me stumped. I think I can just take out the 1/2" on a line running from the top of the sleeve to the underarm seam. I'm not sure that this will give me the right results, though.

If you've done these kinds of pattern changes before or otherwise have an idea about how to make these changes, I'd love to hear about it. My thick head is having trouble figuring stuff out and it's getting overwhelmed easily by loud sounds or bright lights.

Patterns need fabric

I guess it's too soon to say that I'm ready to get up early every day. After the last few days of flurried activity on the bag, I crashed today and slept until almost 4pm. I was able to go to the gym this evening, at least, and I know that I'll be up early again tomorrow. I just couldn't do it today.

I've been looking at the vintage patterns I have and I'm looking forward to tracing them out and making them. I've already planned my first dress :) I've got a bunch of patterns coming in the mail, too - I've been compulsively checking the mailbox and walking away disappointed when the patterns aren't there.

I've also been looking at fabric on etsy.... I haven't bought any yet, but I suspect that I will eventually. As some of you know, I loooooove fabrics :) I've found that I have a bit of a weakness for Japanese textiles. I love these cute little robots, for example:



And this alphabet fabric (it's not Japanese, I don't think, but it's cool):



And this origami fabric (it is Japanese):



It's hard to resist the pull of these fabrics......

Done and done

I finished the bag and delivered it to its new owner! I was a little sad to see it go because I've been working on it so hard, especially for the last few days. I'm thrilled with the results, though! You can see pictures of it here.

The hardest part of making the bag was making sure that the pattern matched AND the measurements came out right. I found that the best thing to do was to hand-baste the critical seams together at the seamline, sew overtop the basting, and take the basting out. This also ensured that the seamlines were straight. I also used larger-than-usual seam allowances so that I could shift the pieces a little bit, if necessary.

For the next one, I need to remember that it always takes longer to finish the bag than I think it should. Once I had everything made, it took me two full days to finish and I thought it would take only a few hours. There's a big difference there :)

I'm very much looking forward to sewing for me starting tomorrow - I've been eying my patterns and fabrics longingly for quite a while.

BTW, we're watching The Andromeda Strain on A&E right now. I wish we had technology like they do in the miniseries - with the paper computers and the clear computer wall screens that users can touch to move or zoom in on. Cooooool.

The work never ends

The bag is almost done - I have to finish the last seam and make the shoulder pad. I could stay up late tonight but I'd rather be well-rested and do it tomorrow. It'll take less time.

I've been thinking a lot and I have decided that I'm going to go back to work in the fall, assuming that my scans next month come out fine. I've got a lot more energy and I'm finding myself less tired than I used to be, now that I'm mostly switched over to the Fentanyl. I figure that I would be easing into work anyway, but over the summer I'll practice getting up at a work-time (instead of between 10am and 2pm) and doing stuff. Like clean the house or do the dishes :)

Anyways, I'll make a final decision after I get my test results back at the end of June. I want to go back to work and the thought doesn't fill me with dread but a sort of excitement.

No show this weekend

I've decided that I'm not going to do the craft show this weekend. This is not just because I haven't finished the messenger bag :) I did contact the organizer and a vendor's permit is not strictly required but is strongly advised. So we'll see. I'm hoping to get out to the show, if only briefly, on Sunday to check things out. I'd like to get a feel for the show and the people in it before I make any firm commitments.

A lot packed into such a short day

Either I was tired before the Pamidronate or it knocked me out again, because I didn't get up until 2pm today. Oh well - sleep isn't a bad thing.

When I got up I went to look at my favourites on etsy and found that many of the patterns that I liked had been sold. I didn't know why that would have happened all of a sudden but when I checked the A Dress A Day blog it became clear. The sellers of those patterns are having a Buried Treasure sale and so people bought the patterns. Of course I didn't want all of the patterns I liked to be sold so I bought some :) I can't wait until they all arrive!!!

This evening Ian and I went to a games night with some people that he knows. We played Bohnanza and had a great time. I won the first game and came in tied for last on the second one. I hope to go again another time.

While at game night, an etsy seller invited me to be in a craft show. The next show is May 26 and is held about monthly after that. A table is $45. I was poking around and it seems that the focus of the show is reclaimed goods but that any crafter can apply. There is some jewelry there but none of it is like what I make, so I'd be bringing something new there. I think I need a vendor's permit and so I'd have to register Angelstuff.... am I ready for that? What do you think? Information on the show is here. Thanks for your thoughts :)

Sewing fun

Ian and I put up some shelves in my sewing room today. I'm thrilled! I'm going to use them to store the stuff that is currently in mountainous piles around my machines - like patterns, stuff I'm also working on, cutting things, extra pieces, and so on. We also put a light under the shelf above my cutting area and that will make things much, much easier when I'm working there. It can be hard to see otherwise. I'm looking forward to working there now :)

Unfortunately, my serger is behaving badly these days :( There's a thin needle-thing in the throat plate that I think is out of place. The lower looper thread is somehow putting additional tension on the outside straight stitch so that it skips and sometimes breaks. Once it breaks the threads get messed up. If I go slow and be careful and watch (and listen carefully - I can hear the thread doing something strange), I can use the serger. But once this bag is done, I'm going to take the serger in for service. I've had it for three years or so and it's never been serviced so it's past time.

I had my Pamidronate today and I used the emla cream and it made a HUGE difference!!! I had no pain when they accessed my port. Yay! I messed up, though; most of the port is underneath my scar (which is huge and not healed) and it's hard to access it if I'm lying flat, which I was. The nurse and I were talking and she cleaned the area to make it sterile when I put my finger on the port to show her how she could access it if I was sitting up a bit. I wasn't supposed to touch the area because I made it unsterile. Oooops. I won't do that again.

I'm feeling ok but a bit tired and so we took it easy tonight - except to put up the shelves and to tidy up the sewing room a tiny bit.

One way to spend a cold, rainy, long weekend

Since almost everything is closed tomorrow we did some errands today. I have my Pamidronate infusion on Tuesday and they recommended that I use EMLA cream so it doesn't hurt so much. Anyways, I picked that up today; it's available over the counter and it costs $50 (gulp!).

After that we wandered around Home Depot for a while. We're looking at restructuring my sewing room so that we can find things more easily and so that it's more organized. We got a couple of shelves and a 16"x60" frameless mirror that I've been looking for. I have a smaller one but it's not long enough or wide enough.

And of course I'm still sewing. I did finish the front panel of the messenger bag, which is good news. Now onto the rest of the bag so that I can sew, sew, sew for myself!

This is the bag that never ends

You know, I've been working on this messenger bag and I wish I could say that it's going smoothly, but I seem to be recutting and redoing quite a lot of pieces.

I'm working on the front panel right now which has a hidden zippered pocket, a bellows pocket, and a topstitched zippered pocket. I've recut the panel itself twice: the first because the fabric I'm using is an uneven houndstooth (like an uneven plaid) and my first attempt was upside-down. I recut it the second time because I had put the hidden zippered pocket in the seam allowance of the bag. Silly me.

I also had to redo the topstitched zippered pocket once. The way it's constructed is to open up a zipper and sew each side on opposite sides of the fabric. The first time I did this, I managed to flip one of the zipper sides so that the teeth were upside-down on one side. Oops.

Did I mention that I had to redo the bellows pocket flap as well? Yes, I mismatched the houndstooth. Sigh. At least it's a small piece.

These are all silly errors and I don't quite know why I'm making them. Fortunately, I'm getting the final pieces right and the front panel is looking good. I'll tell you, though, I'm looking forward to finishing the front panel and moving on to the lining compartments. I'm hoping that the rest of the bag will be smoooooth sailing once all the fiddly pockets are done.

Putting my foot in my mouth

So here I am bragging about how my sewing is getting better and it turns out that I'm exaggerating a bit. I'm working on a dress now and I've got the sleeves in and something is wrong. They're supposed to be a little poufy, but they wound up looking like mutton legs. Part of the problem is that the shoulders are about an inch and a half too wide but that's not all of it. I think the sleeves are too poufy for me. Sigh. I'll have to take the sleeves out and recut both the shoulders and sleeves.

After I finish this dress, I'm not going to work on more dresses until my new (vintage) patterns arrive. I do need to work on the messenger bag, but I also want to try using these other patterns before I do anything else.

As for fixing pants that have worn through: duct tape is one solution. However, a better one would be to get some denim that matches the colour and shade of the jeans as possible and then darn them (or zigzag, or drop the feed-dogs and move the patched area around, on a machine) in place. The patch will be a little bit noticeable but not as noticeable as duct tape :)

Yellow tulips

The people who lived in our place before us had planted some kinds of flowers in our front patch. For the last couple of years the only thing that showed up were big green floppy leaves. This year the conditions were just right and for the first time, we have gorgeous yellow tulips growing there. What a nice way to start the summer!

I must be getting better at sewing because I don't have to rip things out or redo them much anymore. It takes a lot less time to make something if I don't have to sew each seam at least twice :) It has taken a long, long time to get to this point and there are certain things that I can almost guarantee that I'll have trouble with - like collars. But I'm getting better at those, too, and over time I hope to improve even more.

I know that I've been obsessed with sewing and dresses (50s dresses..... sigh) but believe it or not, I have had a few ideas for some jewelry. Yes, really :) I haven't been making much of that lately, as I think you know. I'm hoping to get back to that, a bit, because I'd like to get the designs out of my head and constructed. Not that I've photographed or listed the last couple of pairs I made, of course, but that doesn't matter. The point is to get stuff made. :)

Celebrating great news!

There is no recurrence in my breast. Yay!!!! The pathology report showed that the core biopsies were composes of skin and fat but not breast tissue and so there is no recurrence. This is a huge relief and is definitely something to celebrate :) . Yippeeee!!!

And to celebrate, I got a pattern ready and cut it out. I might have mentioned that I have a 50s dress fetish/obsession going on right now? Well, I adjusted and cut out a regular shirtdress with an a-line skirt and unpressed pleats. And side pockets, of course :) I hope that it doesn't take too long to sew up.

I've found all sorts of vintage pattern sources online and I'm feeding my fetish by looking at them. If you know me, you know that it's hard for me to resist buying items related to my current obsession..... so I've just ordered two vintage dress patterns. This one is almost identical to a dress that I sketched for me, and I just had to buy the pattern when I found it! This other one is adorable - look at the button detail on the sleeves that matches the front placket. I can hardly wait to get them and make them up :) I'll have to grade both of the patterns up a size or two but I'm pretty sure I can do that, and if I run into trouble there are resources on the web.

I'm also bidding on this other vintage shirtdress pattern; we'll see if I win it. Cute, isn't it? Can't you see me wearing this during the summer? This pattern I have to grade down which is a bit easier :)

Now all we have to do is figure out how to manage my lack of endurance. Monisa is right in that I sleep a crazy amount the day after doing activities. If I can't get all the sleep I'd like to that first day, it builds up until I sleep WAAAAYYYYY too much one day - like yesterday, where I slept the whole day, or that Saturday that I lost. Would I sleep less if I was in better shape? And how do I get in better shape if an hour of bellydancing exhausts me?

I see sewing in my future

It looks like the new messenger bag is going to be a go; the person is answering my replies, at least :) I'm happy about that, although I guess this means that I should have been sewing drum bags before. I'm ready to start sewing them tomorrow, though.

If this keeps up I'll start having nightmares about drowning in bags :)

I think that I'm able to decrease my oxycontin painkiller intake but I think that I may have tried to decrease the amount too quickly. I got woogly tonight, which is usually a sign of withdrawl. Sigh. I'll tell you, taking a lot of painkillers - even though I have to - is no fun. I don't like that I have both a physical tolerance and a physical addiction to the things. The doctors say to not worry about addiction in this case. At least I'm not craving more painkillers or any other drug, so I think that I'll be ok.

Lots of sewing but less for me

The core needle biopsy area is still sore, but at least it's stopped bleeding. I think it's slightly less red, too, which leaves me feeling quite relieved!

Someone is asking about a messenger bag from me and while I hadn't planned to do any bags like that for a while, well, I'm not going to turn anyone down, am I? I took pictures of the different outer fabrics and linings that I have. I'll edit them tomorrow and put them somewhere so that the person who's interested (as well as anyone else) can choose from them.

I've also planned to make some drum bags for the upcoming open house on May 4 at the bellydance studio. That way, people can buy them if they want to. That would also be a good day for my class to practice the choreography for the recital on May 11 :)

Of course I decided that I wanted to make a dress out of the fine cotton fabrics that I bought :) Some of them shrunk quite a bit in the prewash! I've got a pattern adjusted and I've decided on a layout; the actual sewing should be quite straightforward, I hope.

Core needle biopsy aftermath

The core biopsy didn't hurt yesterday, but oh my goodness it has been very sore today! It's swollen and tender to the touch and is definitely bruised. It also turns out that it had been bleeding last night and so I had to do extra laundry today.

I went out to the yarn store and bought a book on knitting with wire. I thought that was pretty cool :) I also bought some yarn that I'll stick in my stash of yarn-to-be-knit. That pile isn't nearly as big as the pile of fabric-to-be-sewn. That's good because I don't have the kind of space to store that much stuff.

Ian and I are both really tired and so it'll probably be a very early night. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow - I do want to get some more sewing done :)

Reading about bellydance costumes

As you might remember, I ordered some bellydance costuming books. They came today, a whole week early! All of the books are by Dawn Devine Brown and they cover everything from the technical aspects of making a costume to the design elements that emphasize or minimize things. I'm reading them all, cover to cover. Next I just need to design my own costume. So exciting!

For all that I have no compulsion to sew, I've been sewing a lot. I'm working on this great shirtdress right now out of a tan fabric with black embroidery and black tulle accents. I'm using black for the collar and sleeve bands and black buttons and the dress is coming together quite nicely. I actually managed to get the collar on properly!!!!

The way I did the collar was first to stay-stitch the neck and the clip the neck to the stay-stitching to make it fit around the collar curves. I add drops of Fray-check to the points, but since the seamline is outside the stay-stitching, it's unlikely that the fabric will ravel through on those points.

Tomorrow I get another Pamidronate infusion; I wonder how long it will knock me out this time?

On my own for the weekend

Ian's off to Rochester to juggle for the weekend which means I'm on my own until Sunday afternoon. The only thing I have to do all weekend is the dishes and the rest of the time is my own. I actually got up early this morning to see Ian off and managed to stay awake all day. I entertained myself by sewing, surfing the internet, and watching tv.

I watched This is Spinal Tap while sewing this afternoon. Oh, that's a funny movie - how can you not laugh while watching the dwarves dance around the 18" high Stonehenge? :) Even thinking about that scene while writing this makes me giggle out loud, even when I'm by myself :)

I found this awesome site by Swarovski called Create Your Style. There are tons of user-uploaded design ideas using Swarovski products, and there are even instructions on how to do some of the basics in wire-work and beading. Even better, there's a place where you can design your own item using Swarovski products. The whole site is worth a look.

FunkaBelly fun

Last night some of the Haft Vadi students headed to Toronto for the FunkaBelly dance. It's a monthly party thrown by one of the instructors in Toronto and it's full of bellydance music, dancers, and fun. There are some performers and a nightful of dancing. I had a great time! I didn't love all of the music they played, but I definitely loved the performances and the opportunity to dance with and meet people that I had seen but didn't know.

I'd been really nervous about what to wear and ended up wearing one of my long, black, bellydance skirts and a black top that I love. I didn't bare my belly because I didn't feel like it but the top and skirt made me look really curvy. The theme of the party was "An Homage to Plumage" and I bought a red feather boa out of which I made bracelets and a choker. I also wore my usual bellydance scarf.

Some people looked really awesome!!! One woman had closely beaded a bellydance belt out of iridescent sequins and it looked really amazing. A friend of mine also sewed sequins onto a bra and it looked fabulous! I'm so proud of her :)

More on the recital

I got some rest last night and feel MUCH better. I was able to go out to lunch with some friends, go and get more materials for drum bags, and go for a walk.

The bellydance recital was great; I'll be doing the same choreography on May 11 in that recital. There were a lot of different instructors and their students there, which was interesting. The atmosphere was quite a bit different from other recitals that I've attended; everything felt a bit colder. Most of the groups of students ignored the others. I was lucky and managed to talk (in passing, at least) with quite a few people. That was good, at least.

One of the best things was seeing all of the different styles of bellydance. There were little kids doing a simple choreography, an American Tribal group (there are different tribal schools out there, and the biggest studies something called American Tribal - apparently there's quite a bit of controversy there), some cabaret-type dances, and others.

I'm going to make another drum bag prototype for Wednesday. I need to change the one I made to be about an inch shorter and to have a pocket in front. They also want a bag for clay drums that has a half-inch padding throughout to protect the drum. I got the foam padding and some plain black broadcloth for these drum bags. The broadcloth is the same as is used with the quilted broadcloth that I'm using for the other drum bags.

A fun shopping day

I got up early this morning to go to the Fabricland in Stratford. Vogue patterns are on sale for $5.99 and I wanted to go through some other discounted patterns and buttons. While I was there, I ran into the friend I went shopping with on Saturday and she helped me look through everything. I ended up getting a bunch of buttons, patterns, and trim on sale. We had a great time.

I took the drum bag to bellydancing today and construction-wise, it's fine. I need to shorten it by an inch, though, as it is a little long. And although the original specs were with no pocket, now I need to add a pocket that will hold a folded sheet of paper or two :) Also, there are some clay drums that are very fragile and break easily. They want bags that have 1/2" padding in them for those. The bellydance term is over for a couple of weeks and I'll have something ready when I go back.

Finished a drum bag

I finished the drum bag prototype for the bellydance studio today. I'd been meaning to do it but then wanted to sew only for me. Over the last few weeks I've had some ideas in my head and I was finally able to get it done. It's made of black quilted cotton broadcloth with piping and straps.

The bag is smaller at the bottom than the top, to accommodate the shape of the drum. For my first pattern, I just took the extra off at one end of each side of a rectangle to form a trapezoid... but then I realized that this wouldn't work because the seams wouldn't meet at right angles. The way to draft the pattern is to start with a big rectangle and then fold small, evenly-spaced darts out of one side to make an arch-shaped piece. This was perfect.

Then I realized that I'd included too much ease and had to trim it down a bit. Fortunately that wasn't too hard. I'm quite pleased with the bag, overall; I've serged and top-stitched my seams for strength and attractiveness. And now that I know how to make the bag, it would only take a couple of hours at most to make another one.

Hopefully it will be the right size and design and the studio will like them. If I were to sell ones like this myself, I'd probably sell it for $25. If the studio wants to sell them, I'll sell them for less (bulk orders get a discount, of course :)

So I'm making a dress

I don't know how much I have to wear that would be appropriate for the visitation tomorrow, so I'm making a simple dress to wear. I have to shorten and hem the sleeves, hem the bottom, and make the belt, but I think I can do all of that tomorrow.

The front, back, and raglan sleeves of the dress are gathered into a scoop neck band. I'm using that black cotton/silk voile over a black satin fabric for the dress and the satin for the neck band and belt. The voile is cut on the bias and I made its gathers bigger so that they'll fall away from the lining and I think it looks good. It definitely needs a belt because it doesn't have a lot of shape to it.

I hope that it works out tomorrow because if it doesn't I'll have to figure out something to wear. I'm pretty sure that I have an appropriate black skirt and jacket but I don't know if I have a top that isn't too casual. I think the dress looks ok but until it's all done, I won't really know whether it looks good. It may be that my changes don't look right, or that my lunch tomorrow doesn't leave me with enough time to finish the dress. I'll know tomorrow :)

Mid-Easter weekend

I bought more fabric at Fabricland today. I also got myself a membership there because I shop at that one so often. Ian saw the total price and asked me if that was my spring/summer clothing budget. Ummm, yes. :) We also got some fabric and notions to make drum bags; it looks like the raw materials are about $13 per bag. I'd hoped the bag would be about $20-25, so that'll probably work out perfectly.

I had a huge cry the other night, when my test results came back good. I couldn't stop thinking about how he would have been so happy for me and how relieved he would have been. The thought that my dad isn't going to be feeling anything - that I can't go to him with questions or when I'm worried - made me so sad. :(

It's been a couple of days....

Sorry I haven't written anything in the last couple of days - I've gone to bed early both days and I've been too tired to write anything. I'm on my way to bed now but I'll give you something new to read :)

I saw my family doctor today and he said that if I had a new recurrence in the same breast, we would need to re-evaluate all of my treatments. Sigh. He also said that the reason I'm sleeping so much is that I'm taking so many painkillers, so we're going to start to increase the fentanyl patch and decrease the oxycontin to twice a day. Hopefully that'll keep the pain down without making me feel too tired.

My friend is still very ill and declining. Apparently her doctor has said that it's a matter of days now before she dies. I'm so sad. I want to visit her but I don't think I can really do that - and it occurred to me that I might be trying to help her in the hopes that the outcome will be different than my dad's was.... that she wouldn't die. But there's nothing I can do to help her and I can't use that to try and block the grief I feel about my dad. I'll email her husband so that he knows that he's not alone, but I can't give any more. This was a very hard realization to come to because I want to do everything I can for my friend and her family.

Tomorrow I have my young women's support group. I think I'm looking forward to that; it's hard to say. I've been spending most of my awake time down in my sewing room, playing with fabrics or sewing, and part of me would rather do that tomorrow night instead of going to a support group. However, I know that I'm in need of support so I'll go. When I get home tomorrow, if I'm not exhausted, I'm sewing. For sure :)

A snow day

I got to sew today! Well, first I slept in until mid-afternoon, and then I sewed. I'm just about finished the dress I'm making; it's a round neck with gathers all around. I had lengthed the sleeves because they were just puffy cap sleeves but they're too long, so I'll shorten them tomorrow. I'm also going to take the dress in a bit at the waist. The dress isn't quite a rectangle but it's close and the little bit of extra shaping at the waist will make it look even better.

Tomorrow I'll sew. Ian has finally bought himself a PS3 game console along with some games and is quite happy to spend all his time playing games :) That suits me fine because I want to sew.

I had wanted to visit my friend in hospital but the roads aren't going to be good enough tomorrow. I hope to go on Thursday this week, maybe. She is slowly deteriorating as her liver is not improving. They basically just have her on fluids and painkillers and she sleeps all the time. I don't know how long this stage lasts but it won't go on forever. When I found out that she was doing so poorly this afternoon I had a big cry - I'm not ready for her to die. She had a good word for almost everyone on the list and she gave the list joy and happiness. Her passing will leave a very big hole that won't be easily filled. I (and many others) will miss her terribly.

Saw my surgeon today

I see my surgeon every three months or so right now; in fact, I was supposed to see him on February 14 but what with my dad, I didn't make it to that appointment. He's going away next week and I was lucky to get in to see him before he left.

During the examination, he found a thickening in latest scar (the one from the last lumpectomy in May, 2006, where he removed the recurrence tumour). This thickening wasn't there the last time he saw me in November so he took a fine-needle aspiration sample of it and sent it off to the lab. He'll get the results in about 10 days, except of course he won't be there, so hopefully I'll get the results from my family doctor. The thickening could be nothing or it could be the cancer coming back in my breast.

This turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's (my) back. I'm still dealing with my dad's death, and my friend isn't doing well, and now there's a possibility that the cancer has come back in the same breast. Aaaaarghhhh! I started freaking out a bit. I know it's not the same as worrying that the cancer has showed up in some new organ, but it's worrisome enough as it is and I don't feel equipped to deal with this on top of everything everything.

So I did a little retail therapy. I went to Fabricland and bought lots of patterned stretch jersey and some 70% cotton/30% silk voile in both black and white and some other polka-dotted stretch satin fabric. I also bought some patterns that were on sale for $2/each. I did what I could to save money but I still spent a lot. Yes, I felt a bit better afterwards. I'd walked in a zombie and came out excited about the fabrics. After curling this evening, I washed the fabrics and I picked out a pattern and prepared it. I'm going to sew this weekend.

On Monday, I'm going to call my social worker. As well, my Spirituality and Healing group starts meeting again on Thursday and my Young Women's support group meets on Wednesday this week so I'll go to those. I feel like I need some help coping and as much as I love love love retail therapy, I don't have unlimited funds.

A lazy bellydancing day

I went to bellydance today for the first time in a while. I discovered that I don't remember the choreography, but that's ok. There are classes on Saturdays that are doing this choreography and I can take some of those to make up for the ones that I missed.

I've been meaning to do some sewing but I haven't been able to figure out what it is that I want to sew. You know how that is? I spent the afternoon looking at my fabrics and trying to think of what to sew. Nothing is shouting out at me, though, so maybe I should leave it.... but I feel like sewing. I guess it's good that I have a project to work on :)

I've also been wasting time over at FreeRice. It's a vocabulary game where for each word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated through the UN World Food Programme to help end hunger. So my time isn't exactly being wasted if it's for a good cause, right? :) I encourage those of you who haven't played this already to start... it's quite addictive.

Spring '08 summaries

Thanks to those of you who gave me some reassurance about the way I'm grieving. I'm beginning to think that I may have grown up a bit since I last experienced much grief. That, and I have many more tools in my toolkit to help me deal with it.

I've been asked to give a summary of current runway clothes - which is the Fall '08 season - and I still need to look at the collections to do the summarize. In the meantime, I thought I'd offer up my summary of the Spring '08 season for women. This season seems to be less about shape and more about colours and patterns.

Clothes

• the dress reigns supreme. Whichever colour scheme or style you want, you'll find a dress. There are still a lot of sheaths, trapeze dresses, shirtdresses, long dresses, flowy dresses, drapey dresses, lots of folding and gathering
• things made out of jersey and other fabrics that are drapey.
  
• wide-leg jeans
• waists are still going up. High-waisted pants and skirts are in for people other than me
• vests
• blouses - many are romantic
• tunics are still around
  

Accessories

• belts - on everything. Put them over a dress or a tunic. Skinny belts, wide belts, you name it. Most are black or natural colours. Some white and metallics are to be expected.
• big clutches - still. They came in for Fall '07 and they're still around, although they're less shiny and more patent
• big bags - in bright colours. These aren't quite as big as a few seasons ago, but you can still carry a big part of your life in them
  
• big sunglasses

Shoes

• gladiator sandals/stilettos/wedges - if you can cage your feet in it or lace it up your leg, that's good
• platforms
• ballet flats - especially Mary Jane-types with a strap over the instep
  
• wedges - sigh. And here I thought they were leaving. They're still around, but they are tending to be more natural fibres in the wedge than before
  
• peep-toed booties - sigh. I didn't much like the booties (an oxford shoe with a stiletto heel) before, although I'm getting used to them. Putting a tiny peep-toe in them looks strange to me.
• stacked wooden heels/platforms, as well as cork heels
  

Colours and patterns

• bright, saturated colours - bright yellow, orange, cherry red, royal blue, fuschia, kelly green - with almost a patent leather look/feel to them. Most often found in accessories, not clothes, although some clothes will be these colours. These colours are found in the floral prints, below. Pair with black.
• black and white together
• metallics - silver, gold, and copper - are still popular
• nude colours are still around.
• flowers - yes, flowers. Mostly on dresses, and in all sizes, from the small calicoes to big flowers. In all colours as well. There will be a lot of flowers.
  
• stripes - there are some nautical influences here, and the stripes are mainly horizontal. I read somewhere that narrow horizontal stripes are slimming. Huh?
• "painterly" patterns - soft washes of colour. Ombres, dip dyes, and ikats are examples of these patterns.
• ruffles, gathering, ruching, and some origami are still around - but not used as heavily with the flowered patterns.

I think that's it for the highlights. I'll take a look and see if I can come up with something cohesive for Fall '08.

I want to make things

It is some kind of cold here in Edmonton! Between that and the change in altitude, I'm really tired. At least I've been sleeping. :) I'm hoping while I'm here to maybe find a bellydance studio that accepts drop-in students so that I can keep up some of my dancing. I'm going to wait on that for a little while, though.

I have almost all of my beads here in Edmonton (funny, at the Waterloo airport I watched them search my suitcase because of all of the little bits of metal in that bag) and I've pulled them out this evening. I'm hoping to create some new pieces as I've been itching to really make things. This happened when I took all those new background photos for the earrings - I realized that I loved making things and I wanted to be able to make more things. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you :)

Anyways, I'm hoping that I'll make some things while I'm here. I'm also hoping to edit my current items for sale with the new photos! I'll let you know when I do that, though - if you were to have put any of those items in your cart before I edit them, then you will have to remove and re-add the items when I'm finished editing in order to actually purchase your items. It's a little "quirk of etsy's.

More and more photos and a movie

I'm still working on photos for my jewelry - I got some more cardstock and took some more pictures today. This time I took photos of eight different pairs of earrings that are both light, dark, and combinations of light and dark, so I should have a good idea of what will work once I've edited all the photos. I'll be very happy once I'm only taking pictures on a few backgrounds :)

This evening we watched 28 Weeks Later. I thought it was nowhere near as good as 28 Days Later. The characters did some really stupid things and so I couldn't empathize with them as well as I usually do. Yeah, I know, horror movie characters are supposed to do stupid things, but they didn't do that in 28 Days Later or in some of the other movies we've watched. Even the stupid actions in Cloverfield were sort of understandable. The ones in 28 Weeks Later couldn't be adequately explained rationally or emotionally so I ended up thinking it was sort of silly in parts. It was sort of an interesting story. This movie is quite gory, so be forewarned, but it's not that scary; I hardly jumped at all and there was no danger that I'd dissolve in a puddle of fear while watching it.

Ian liked the movie because It was gory and had lots of action and it had an ok story. Maybe if I was in a different mood (as in, able to ignore the stuff I didn't like so much) I might have liked it as much as Ian did. I will admit that there were some good and interesting scenes, and I particularly liked the ending.

I'd say that 28 Weeks Later is good enough to see as a rental.