Creating and organizing

A little while ago I went on a spending spree, buying cabochons and faceted gems in lots of different colours. I'm not very good at planning out what I want to make and then finding the stones I want to use in those designs; I like to be inspired by different stones. Of course I can design something and then find stones to fit but it can be hard to find a stone of a particular size and colour. I buy on eBay and etsy; I don't buy the volume of good stones to be able to place an order at one of the big gem supply places. I also don't want to pay those prices!

Anyways, I bought all those stones and have been carrying them around in their original packaging. This has made it difficult to look at the stones and be inspired by them. I bought some watchcases a couple of weeks ago and this weekend I finally put all the stones in the watchcases. I haven't yet finished putting all of the information on the cases about the stone (in particular, not every case has the price I paid for the stone), and I haven't organized the stones aside from separating faceted stones from cabochons, but now I can open up the cases and see all my beautiful stones.

Hopefully I'll start being inspired soon. My niece and one of my nephews are graduating from high school this year and I'm making each of them something to celebrate. I actually have ideas about what I want to make for each of them and now that I can see my stones, I can look at them and make these ideas into drawings into actual things.

Each one already knows they're getting something so I don't mind saying that but I'm not going to tell you about my ideas. After all, I might change them and even if I don't, I want the final products to be a surprise. :) I'm very excited about making these gifts.

Speaking of making things, my instructor loved the sample apron I made. I need to adjust the neck strap slightly but she loves it otherwise... as do two of the other students. They're buying aprons, too, which is kind of cool. I won't make money on these but I'm happy that I can make something useful for the studio and my classmates.

Merry Christmas!

I hope that this Christmas is full of peace and love for all of you and that Santa was generous to you. Santa gave me exactly what I wanted: a low-key Christmas with lots of time to myself to read, have a bath, nap, or surf the internet. My day has felt a lot like a normal day to me except that we're at Ian's parents' house. I feel completely at home here so being here hasn't been at all stressful for me.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to Edmonton for Christmas and to see my family and friends. Traveling is inherently stressful for me because I'm not sleeping n my own bed or eating my own food. This year I've got grief on top of the travel stress and between the two I won't have a lot of energy left for other people. In past years I would try and cram as much as I could into each day that I was there but I can't afford to do that this time. I'm thinking that instead of doing two or more activities each day I'll start with one and see how it goes. I can't emotionally afford to come back from Edmonton needing a vacation! :)

That's not to say that I won't have any fun while I'm in Edmonton. I expect to be mourning some of the time but mourning doesn't mean that I can't enjoy myself. It means that my fun might be more on the low-key side but the fun will still be there.

Speaking of fun, I gave myself a Christmas present: a class in basic silversmithing. I've wanted to learn how to solder and make rings and whatnot for a while and when I saw that the course is starting in January, I signed up. I'm excited about learning something new and about the prospect of getting back into making some jewelry when I get back.

My books are here!

My new pattern making books, including two of the three Japanese books I wanted, arrived today. I was so excited that I dropped everything that second to flip through all of them!

The Japanese books are everything I thought they'd be and more. They explain how to draft the different patterns and how to do fitting. Some of the things they suggest are a little bit different than what I've seen previously, but the changes suggested make sense. There's more than one way to make flat pattern changes, after all.

The instructions in these pages are very dense; there's a lot included in each diagram and if I were to be working out of this book, I'd have to really concentrate on what to do, at least at the beginning. Even so, these instructions are definitely more complete than other instructions I've seen, and there are a number of different styles that they make.

I had also bought two editions of vintage pattern making books; one was published in 1938 and the other in 1946. It's quite interesting to be able to compare the two books, because in a way they embody the changes in the world as a result of world war II.

Much of the content in both is the same, and both books have the same section, but in each book, one section has been expanded to include more information than the equivalent section in the other book. In the later book, it's the section on "making do" that has been greatly expanded. This section has a lot of ideas on how to alter clothes to hide worn spots or to create entirely new clothes altogether out of worn ones. This section exists in the earlier book but it's much, much smaller.

The expanded section in the earlier edition is the one on embroidery stitches and ways to prettify the world around the reader. There are lots of examples and patterns and ideas on ways to use the embroidery in the earlier edition, but much of that is lacking in the later edition.

Seeing that difference really does kind of bring home how much world war II and the rationing affected people. Going from having the means and the ability to create beauty around you to not having enough and having to make do with and reuse everything. The beauty was still there but it wasn't as important as learning to make do, just as before people knew how to make do but it was a lesser focus than making things beautiful.

I think that all four of these books are a real find and I'm very much looking forward to exploring them even more.

So many possibilities

I'm feeling a little antsy, like it's time for me to make or create something. My last project was the dress I made for the holiday party last month and that was quite a while back. So I'm thinking that it's time to turn my attention to another project.

I'm not quite sure what I want to do, however. Part of me wants to knit, because I want to make a hat or two... but I'm a little nervous about hurting my wrist. My wrist has been achy lately although it's better now. Part of me wants to do some sewing, but if I do that, what would I saw? And yet another part of me wants to play with some wire things and maybe making some jewellery - something I haven't done in a while. I'm feeling really indecisive; I just don't know what to do.

I think this is more than just being indecisive. I've been tired and weary for a while now because last year was so difficult. So there's a huge part of me that really does just want to sit around and watch tv all day while surfing the net. That part sits on my shoulder like a little devil whenever I think about doing something else,  whispering into my ear, "but it's easy to sit... making a decision is so hard... you know you don't want to do anything hard.... so don't do anything". Which is all fine and good, because obviously sitting and doing nothing is more immediately satisfying than doing anything else, but at the end of the day I feel angry and guilty that I did nothing productive. Again.

That little voice speaks when I think about doing things like leaving the house to go for walks or to the grocery store. Of course I go out for appointments and stuff that I need to do, but I'm not doing as much outside the house that I used to. It's getting easier and easier to stay in the house while sitting on the couch, watching the tv and surfing the internet. I don't think this is all that healthy for me.

I'm going to have to find a way to quiet that voice. I know that there must be an angel voice there somewhere, counteracting the little devil voice. I'll need to take baby steps - commit to doing something for 10 or 15 minutes, say. This is a whole new year and I don't want it to slide by like last year did. I want to feel like I've accomplished something each day, even if that's just going for a walk or something.

Changes... more traveling coming up

My blog should look different to you; I've decided to add the Google Friend Connect thingy over there so that people can follow me, if they want to.

When I added that widget yesterday I noticed that I had a really long list of stuff on that right side over there. So I figured out how to make my blog a 3-column blog instead. I've been playing around with this for a few hours and I need to take a break from it as I have no idea if it looks any good anymore. So what do you think? Is there anything that you don't like or would like to see changed? I can't promise that I'll change everything everyone brings to my attention but I will consider everyone's words.

In other news... I'd known for a while that at some point I'd be heading to Edmonton to help out my mom. I had thought that I'd have about two weeks' notice before I had to be there but as it happens things were sped up (which is good!) and so I have to be there no later than Thursday night next week. So I'm leaving early in the morning on Wednesday the 7th and will be in Edmonton for three weeks until my return home on October 28.

I guess if I want to make some more headcoverings, I'd better get on that, hmm? I will be giving the pattern to our local support place, and I may be able to give it to other people, too. My pattern is a modification of another pattern that's freely available on the internet. I have to check the license to see under what conditions I can give it away or post it on the internet. Of course no matter who gets it, I'll give a shout out to the person who developed the original pattern.

Where did the summer go?

Fall is definitely here; it's been very, very windy out and it's been a lot colder here. Our furnace has even been running!

With the cold weather has come an increase in my hip pain. I was sitting on the couch and when I got up, I wished I'd had my cane nearby because I couldn't walk very well. I ended up soaking in a hot, hot bath to loosen up my hips and to take the ache out.

If this is what my hips are like now, what will they be like when it's really, really cold out? I'm trying not to think about that. I hope that it'll be bad for only a little while, that my hip will get used to the cooler temperatures.

I was sitting on the couch playing with some wire wrapping and lace things. I have some craft wire in different gauges and I'm using that for my experimentation. I was able to coil a thin wire around a doubled, thicker wire fairly easily and make it into a circle. I was happy with that. I did try to do a standard netting stitch (which is really just a buttonhole stitch) inside of the circle. I had some trouble with getting everything the right size at first, but it was easier later.

When I did the netting stitch, I didn't decrease the number of stitches I made so I was only able to cover about half of the interior of the circle. Obviously that's not quite I what I wanted :) I'll experiment with this more in the next few days. At least this is something I can do while sitting on the couch, watching tv.

The sun came out today

Talking with my meditation group definitely helped today. Several had been through similar situations and knowing that makes it easier. My group leader also suggested that I write things down and allow myself to feel whatever it is that I'm feeling and not try to suppress it.

And of course meditating will help to keep my mind clear and calm. This is not surprising advice because it is a meditation class, after all :)

One piece of advice made a lot of sense: that whatever I do, I have to live with it later, and I don't want to do anything that I couldn't live with. I know it seems like a logical statement but in this context it made a lot of sense. I'm not depressed, don't worry, and I won't do anything silly... except for spending too much money, like I did with the pattern over the weekend.

On a brighter note, I did run across something I thought was quite funny: yarnbombing. I guess it's like guerrilla knitting: find an object, knit something to cover it, and attach the knitted item to the object. I love it! What a way to make our cities more beautiful - and use up your yarn. :)

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 :)