Simply riveting, darling.

Have you met Brad?

Brad is a split pin, a scrapbooking pin and up until yesterday was called a "Duotang pin thingie." in my native tongue of Moofinghameranian. There are many kinds of decorative Brads, in all shapes and colours of fabulous. However, after pushing Brad through leather and sealing the backing with another leather strip, Brad looks like his more rustic cousin, the rivet.

Brad and his bros are current drying out after their glue bath. If all goes well, I may have successfully found a way to finish off my leather wrap cuffs. This would please me greatly.

Especially after, how in the last 10 minutes:

1. My rotarty cutter blade is suddenly and magically DULL. It's dead. It was fine for the first three cuts and suddent dead. Did I hit the ruler edge or something? Either way, I am very irratated now.

2. In rotary cutting dully, I hit my brand new silcon glue mat and sliced a nice 4 inch gash right through it. Fantastic. Apparently the blade was still sharp enough to ruin that.

So much for a fabulous after work, working session. There goes my momentum for the night. I might call it day and sulk, and go eat ice cream or something.


My goals for the week.

Finish the leather cuffs. All 9 of them. Try not to ruin anything.
Get started on the spats. Cut fabric for.... 11ths, Tardis, Red'n'Black, Black'n'white, maybe one of the browns depending on the positioning of the pattern pieces and the fabric pattern. Maybe the teal too. Try not to ruin anythung.

Gotta budget the time. Beginning to feel the crunch.

Of Rockstars and Tea

I can't say I really know a lot of about Rock or rocker culture. There is rock music I enjoy. Having said that, I enjoy pop, techno, 80s, and disney movie soundtracks with equal aplomb as well, so all must be taken in stride. But, I bought a vest today, and while it likely has nothing to do with being well verse in the culture, and regardless of the fact the vest is a offwhite lace creation, I felt like a rockstar wearing it.

Maybe my boots helped the feeling along. Not really sure. Maybe I'll just blame it on fanfiction or something. It's like the scapegoat for....everything.

Either way, it all comes down to tea in the end. Now, at least I can say I do know a lot about tea. Not everything, of course. But I know more about tea than I know about rock music. I might be able to even pair a tea to rock music, if I'm having a really good day.

But the point of the tea, was tea staining. I desire to make a lacey cuff to match my rockstar vest. Sadly, the lace I have in blindingly white, not ivory. Ergo, I decided to venture into the world of tea staining. Always wanted to try it.

Not the ideal conditions in some ways, because the lace is polyester but I figured with enough time and tea the colour should take enough that it dull the colour.

It sort of worked too. The colour took and the.... darkness of it is correct, but the tone is too pinky for my liking. Buuuuut, now that I know the lace takes the colour, I can experiment with the colours of the brew using the million kinds of tea I have at home. I'm thinking....an infusion of green tea perhaps, will give it the slightly more yellow tone I need. Perhaps even oolong.

Maybe one day, if we're feeling really crazy I can see what happens if I dye it with my sangria brew. That'll be a zesty colour all right......

But, that's for tomorrow, when I have, ya know, daylight.

"Hey, hey, I wanna be a rockstart...."

The Calculation of Worth

The cost of time and effort. How do you measure it, really? I'm sure there's some sort of fancy dancy math formula for it, but, really what defines what something is worth?

Such is the heavy thoughts of artisan, I'm sure.

Good evening though. The members of crafter's corner booth number whatever had our meeting, comparing our wares, trying to figure out what we need more of, a lot more of, preening over our collective awesomeness and workmanship and generally how much ice cream can be consumed after a delicious dinner of Thai food. But, gods, pricing. Trying to figure how to price something is a pain. High enough to make a bit of scratch, but low enough to make sure they sell. Blargh.

But we started some ideas for the table layout anyway. I need to come up with something to display my cuffs and such on actual forms so people can see what they are suppose to look like. Ideas included arm and boot silhouettes, mannequins pieces and wrapped pvc piping. Though...I'm getting ideas involving copper piping pieces. No idea where this is going, but I'm getting some delightful steampunky vibes.

Got the heat'n'bond I forgot during my last fabricland trip. I swear I feel like I live there.

But, I think I might need to get buttons now for the leather cuffs. Never ending, I swear.

Ah, well. Plug away at it more this weekend. Gotta update the excel spreadsheet of doom.

Now, sleep, though. That sounds good.

Mission One: Accomplished.

Fabric cuffs are DONE! All baggied and ready to inventory and price.

Onwards to the road of light!

And by light I mean leather.
It's leather time, baby.
Up cycling and eco-conscious leather cuff time.
With owls and gears.

Fancy~

A timey-wimey conundrum

Whelp, I've tried to resist the urge, but let's face it - it was only a matter of time.

Time and Relative Dimension...IN SPACE. Looks like 9th/10th version

There will be a T.A.R.D.I.S. dress in my future. I have no idea what it will look like, what time period of fashion will be butcher, but one way or another, I shall don a victoriously blue confection of awesomeness.

And it will probably be made out of that gorgeous blue silk, if I can arrange it. <3 (Seriously, I have an obsesson with duponi silk. The texture and the way it holds it shapes when you crunch it on the bolt in the store? Majestic.)

But what else? I don't just want to translate the image of a police box onto a garment. Nor do I want to be such a vague suggestion to said police box that no one knows who I am.

Colour is key, of course. The blue silk has a perfect black threading, which reminds me of woodgrain. The T.A.R.D.I.S. is made of wood. GENIUS. Any contrasts must be black and white, unless you are dabbling with the interior of the T.A.R.D.I.S. Then, of course, you have to chose what desktop version you want to do. Though, of course, that could be a whole underskirt kinda thing. Anyway.

What else? You have your obvious features like the "Police Public Call Box" banner, the "Pull to Open" sign, and if you go with the recent/classic version, the St. John Ambulance sign. But, it must flow with the outfit. If it's geometric, you can stick'em right on, bold as brass. If it's whismical, it must be a part of the hems and seams, like a suggestion. Seeing as I have no idea what the theme is going to be, those features are going to be tricksy, precious.

You've got windows, or an obvious white and black colour blocking, a lock, and a lightbulb on the very top. Not to mention a very distinctive sound, which is as much part of the machine as the look. (Which I think I read somewhere that the landing sound was made by rubbing a key against piano strings.)

Many, many things. Time to dive into the fashion books, I guess.

ALLONS-Y!

(PS: Went to Fabricland for hopefully the last time in a while, for the booth. Got stuff. Cuffs could be done by tomorrow?)

Getting there...

The end of cuff sewing is in sight. Three more pairs to finish trimming, and some ribbons to cut and we will be ready to move on to something else.

Spats? Or leatherwork? We shall see.

Stopped for the night, since if I stitch anymore, I will have no skin left on my finger. The blunt end of the needle should not be poke that deep of a hole into my fingertip. Ah well, I'll be fnished this weekend.

Might need to make yet another fabricland trip this weekend. I am beginning to feel as if I should purchase stock in the company. I really wish there was one closer. Not that it's far, persay, but man, if it was back in the mall like it was years and years ago, that would be so much easier. Lunchbreaks would be as badly damaged as my paycheque would be.

Watching musicals or shows in the form of musicals messes with my head. I always half expect for a dramatic number to start out of nowhere, and I wouldn't be weirded out.

Friday. Almost there.

Around the internet

New pattern alert! New pattern alert!

Doing the pattern sites rounds to see what's new. Some cute dresses and such, and then this!

M6770 McCalls.

Hello random bustle skirt thingie. And hello jacket. Skirt could be lacking in generousness with the thunder thights, but those other pieces could easily adapt with a natural form silloutte. Or pirate pants. I do own pirate pants. Either way, I kinda just want the skirt. I've been wanting a pattern for that kind of thing. Very adaptable.

Hmmm hmmm hmmm.

Time warp fashion

I am of the current belief that anything that be made better with a poodle skirt adaptation. Avengers? Poodles skirt. Pokemon? Poodle skirt. Doctor Who? No one knows.

*rimshot*

Clearly, I just need poodle skirts in my life. Or for them to go back into style. Make it so, Paris designers, make it so.

Cuffs are still being made. All remaining pairs are ready to be grommeted then trimmed. I'll do a bunch more later on, once the chill of the cold concrete floor leaves my butt.

I really should start on my Costume Con ideas, once Animenorth is over. There's a lot of work to be done there, and I haven't solidify enough of what I'm planning to make.

I don't have any more new books to read. This saddens me. Today would be a perfect book day.

Ah well, back to work.

Under pressure, *do do do do doo.*

I find it entertaining that when one wants to write a new blog entry, one clicks "compose". Considering the weft and weave of the English Language these days, "compose" sounds almost....archaic. Dignified.

I wish to compose an entry about the salad I consumed.
I will compose email, consisting of OMG did you see that?

However, I much prefer the word rather than, well, I don't know. "New message"? "Start yo email"? It's proper.

Also, this blog entry is being written with distinctively terrible British accent. I blame too much BBC.

Anyway. The point of this composition is merely the awareness that it is well into April, and I have SO MUCH STUFF TO MAKE before the end of May. Seriously. Fetch me the T.A.R.D.I.S. I might need to do another lap.

I also need some hand cream. Me hands are reptilian.

Went to Sussman's. Got trim. Went to fabricland. Got more trim, another metre of fabric because I am a Magpie. Took pictures of two fabrics, currently not on sale, one that has that Paris pattern you see on dressforms everywhere, the other that is a lovely T.A.R.D.I.S. blue raw silk with a black undertone that reminds me of wood grain. There are things that I wish to make with them. Once they are on sale of course.

Checked out the patterns skirt I was looking at. Confirmed that one will not work, and one that will. The latter I might not even need a pattern for since it's just a simple couple of seams, some box pleats and a invisible zipper. Easy peasy. After all I have an ERA of AWESOME in my great zipper adventure. (Of the one that I have installed. But it was an invisible zipper!)

Hummmm.... Completed some more cuffs. Green brocade x 2, wine taffeta x2, and white. Now I have work my way through the pile of cut outs, and give them some basting love. Then that's it for cuffs. I need to switch to something else, because I'm feeling like I'm in a rutt. Even though they're all slightly different I'm not used to making multiples of things.

I still desire a poodle skirt.

New week. Let's make it a productive one, kid.

Do you dream of damask?

I kept daydreaming of skirt designs at work. I was builidng bird cages so my mind was quite free to wander.

I really want to make a short gathery or box pleated skirt, with the main fabric as a delightfully nerdy print and a solid colour border hem and waistband. I saw a skirt in a single colour at the One of a Kind sale in silk but I don't know if I can recall the pattern enough to reverse engineer it. A lot of the patterns I'm seeming to find on the pattern catelogue are crossgrain cut which I don't think would work with the direction of the print on the fabrics I'm looking at.

Having said that, summer patterns are likely on their way, so maybe some more patterns will pop up soon.

Got a few more cuffs in the ready-to-grommet stage, which the next lot should arrive hopefully tomorrow or the next day. Cut out some more in the newer smaller size, as well.

I'll need to make another Sussman's trip soon, to get some more of the trims I'm favouring. Hopefully in the next two weeks. I do need to make something with that blue trim though. It hasn't found it's home yet.

Morning goal: Cut out beige and brown small cuff pairs.