more aprons

The last two aprons I finished this summer.  There won't be any more or another year, I promise.  (I think...)

The black and white with pink one is my favorite, obviously.

i'm back! (sort of)

These past few weekends I've been sewing and sewing and sewing...and finding new ways to make summer dresses without zippers or complicated stuff, preferably in under two hours.

Inspired by this dress-with-a-belt-never-mind-cinching-it-exactly-where-the-bodice-meets-the-gathered-skirt look by frida gustavsson (stockholm street style) -

Ok, so the dress I made looks nothing like this.  But take my word, I got some sort of an inspiration from frida's dress :P

I altered one of the McCalls knits-only patterns that doesn't actually need to be sewed up in a knit material (M6347) by basically just chopping the pattern in half...at the waist.  The top I kept the same; the skirt section I added 3 more inches to the fold, so that I could gather it and attach to the bodice.

With a belt, voila!  (not finished yet....just a general idea).

Super comfy, super soft, and just my kind of summer dress :)

apron time again

I made this apron for my mom's birthday; used the same pattern as I did last time.  Wish I could keep it for myself.... :)

 on annie

in person

domesticity...

today i feel like a good little 50's housewife.  well, except for the part about vacuuming with a bottle of wine...or whatever they did back then.

sewing project of the day - an apron! (from butterick, B4945).  i altered the pattern a little, just because i didn't have enough yellow material.  i'm pleased with the results, and it's a very 'me' apron.  violently bright and very happy.  (i wouldn't have bought this material on my own; it's one of those things from the fabric closet to which my aunt has given me access).

now all i need to do is go make biscuits...

birdmobile @ 12.47 am

yesterday my still-incomplete bird-mobile caught my attention when the birds started moving and twirling around.

apparently they had turned on the heat in the dorm, and the vent was blowing air at it.

heat, in october, when it's still warm outside.  really?

more cookies + birds

Friday = peanut butter cookie day

I love this recipe - it's been a favorite since I was little, when I got the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book. The mouse cookbook that came with the actual book is full of lots of yummy recipes!  This peanut butter munchies recipe is by far the easiest - it's not like the others are difficult, but this one has only three ingredients!  Just the important ones, you know.  Peanut butter, sugar, and an egg to hold it all together.  The result is rather peanut-buttery, but hey, that's whole point, right?

Peanut Butter Munchies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Combine all ingredients; mix well.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls and drop onto lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 F, or until golden brown.  Press tines of fork into cookie while still soft.

Voila!

(this is fork-pressing fail we're seeing here).

(oh peanut butter, i love you so...)

Also just cut out more birds for my bird-mobile.  I'm having some issues with the placement of the strings, though.  I have to make sure it doesn't look too premeditated or anything weird like that.  I think I might cut out some smaller birds, and string them on as well.

addicted to distractions/unfinished birds

I decided that it's high time to start filling up those empty curtain-hooks over my window.

With a bird-mobile.

Meaning, I get to cut out the same bird motif over and over again (in cereal box-type cardboard), glue string through the center, and sandwich the string by gluing on a cutout of newspaper on top.

And then painting it with gold acrylic paint.

Quite therapeutic work, actually.

And I think it will be pretty calming to look at when I finish.  The goal is to fill up as many curtain hooks as I can with these strings of birds, without making it look like my window has been completely invaded, say, by a flock of (highly stylized and rather small) birds flying south for the winter.

I'm excited.

memories of a t-shirt; done

well - a bug bite and a completely swollen ring finger unable to bend pretty much robbed me of productive activity friday and saturday.  I never truly appreciated that finger until then - no practicing violin or piano, no sewing or other art projects, minimal amount of drawing (even though I'm pretty much right-handed, that left finger really is important, somehow).

last night - with a much improved finger, finally finished the dress.  I hemmed it up and made the halter strap :)

this morning - zipped up the t-shirt scarf on the machine, flat-felled seams and all!  it's too bad the lime green really doesn't suit my skin tone.

collage #2

for the sketchbooky

dress! part 2 :)

went for the long dress look :)  finished cutting everything out, put in the zipper yesterday (of which i am very proud...); all that there is left to do is hem the bottom.

oh, and my mom seems to think that i should put on straps so that the entire dress doesn't fall down when i'm wearing it.  although after multiple adjustments, and messing with the zipper placement more than once, the thing is, uh, pretty fitted.  comfortable, of course.  but fitted.

so, experiments with said straps.  i'm thinking that the halter thing is gonna win.

a dressmaking dilemma!!!

So I started making a dress from this retro Butterick pattern.

The plan was, to use the pattern for the bodice (I love the detailing), and then attach a shorter skirt - so I could wear it as a little summer dress.

Well, I finished sewing together most of the bodice today, and now I have a seriously dilemma.

a short trial - me with a belt holding the top up, and the material tucked under the belt for the skirt.  It's cute enough.  Just what I was expecting.  But then, I had to let the material down.  All of it.  Of course, right?  Of COURSE I choose to make more choices for myself, and thus complicate life, JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY.

And here is like, something I would totally wear to the Oscars (without that really bad belt).  Or something.  Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration.

Anyway, major dilemma here.  Because while the first dress suits my personality the most, and its shorter length would allow me to wear it to more places, I still can't forget the longer version.  And if I did make it shorter, would I even wear the dress enough to make it all worth it?  Would it be better to just make the longer version, and wear it maybe only once?

OH MY GOODNESS.  MY HEAD IS SPLITTING.  CUTTING OUT THIS SKIRT IS GOING TO BE SO STRESSFUL.

This must be a sign that I have way too much free time.

Anway, I can't cut it out tonight.  I must think about it for a little while.  Even if this is not a healthy thing for me to do.

almost done...i wanna do something new anyway.

I got this giant cardboard-y paper at Costco for free - the kind that they somehow use for packing between boxes or something.  This was supposed to be my hour-a-day, two-week project.  Something new, since I have never painted anything this big before.  Just for fun, with practice I will (hopefully) get better, and acrylic paints are cheap.  Well, that daily project thing didn't quite work, considering I often switch gears and want to try something new.  So much for continuity.  It ended up being more like a month-long project, and I mostly finished today.  Well, it's not perfect, or finished, but I'll just call it finished for now.  I finished the hats anyway.  I based my painting off this black and white picture from that book on beauty through the decades, or something.

Anyway, back when I was doing the painting on a daily basis (all to the soundtrack of the lovely Madeleine Peyroux), I tracked my progress through pictures taken at the end of each session.  Like, 1-2 hour intervals.

So basically this is like the fast-forward let's-watch-a-plant-grow video.  But with painting.

I'm not too fond of these hats....

oh darn. i just remembered i forgot to fix the arm of the lady on the right.  oh well.

collage #1 in below the surface

This is what I came up with.

That's right, Keira Knightley's head has been replaced with a suit of armor helmet.

I felt bad cutting off her head.  The whole Oscar ensemble was rather nice.

Can you spot it? (the head, that is).

Oh, and after looking through all those magazines I was left with a moderate amount of mess in my room...

how lovely.

Conclusion: either MIT has been messing with my head way more than I realize, or this chemistry lab is driving me mad.