So I thought I'd beat the stomach flu ...

... and then it kept me in bed for almost three weeks :( Between sleeping, reading other blogs and - um well you know - ... I actually got crafty ^^ So what DID I do?


Stuff I want to fix BEFORE christmas ...

• I drafted slopers based on my new measurements. I'm probably going to have to make new ones again in a month or so. Loosing weight can really annoy you. But twice as much dancing is worth it.
• I started sewing these trousers / leggings based on my new slopers. I choose to experiment with shifting the side seams. Even though they're not finished yet I wear them around the house. They just fit that well.

  

  The wrinkling will disappear ...

  

  ... as soon as the placket is closed

• I finally took in the under bust band on my favourite bra. I have tiny bone structure and lots of mass on top. Ergo: Bra size 26-28 H. Only I can't find any bras in that size. Therefore my bra bands keep sliding up over my shoulder blades. Well not any more!

If I like the length I'll do a neater finish ...

• I restarted a project I'd just showed into a corner a while ago. My feet are weird. They're small in all directions. Having short feet is typical for dancers (they actually shrink ...) Having a very small arch isn't. Nor are slender feet. I'm rambling aren't I? So anyway I decided to make my own shoes. I don't like moccasins. Even though those I have made turned out really well. Instead I wanted to make my own ballerinas. I also decided not to use any glue with them. I want to be able to throw them in the washing machine! But when I started sewing the insoles everything went wrong. The sewing machine was skipping stitches and badly stretching the felt layer.  I'm going to spare you a picture of those insoles! That's about when I gave up. But now I carefully undid all the stitching. I used a lot of pins. I never use pins so this is a big change for me. I'm also sewing the two layers together by hand.

A big thanks to you for choosing to put up with my rambling and start following my blog. :) Now I don't feel like I'm writing to myself.

 

Butterfly

 

Sloper decisions

As I'm still undecided about the sloper issue I decided that Dolly (yeah the name stuck) gets to have a new skirt. That really doesn't make sense as I threw out the horrid dress she came with and made her a wrap skirt instead. She needs a jacket or a top. But yeah, now she has two skirts. I'll post pictures of both skirts and how I continued drafting as soon as she has a top. She might be made out of plastic, but she'd feel pretty embarrassed otherwise.

Oh and my sewing machine is finally going to the doctors.

The Influence Films have

To start of with: It's perfectly acceptable for me to think about selfish Me!-Me!-Me!-projects again. My mum actually bought a new coat. The fit is horrible. But it's much better than the last one. So I'm not going to complain (as long as you don't get me started on the princess seams that is). So there goes the CCP.

So what's the next selfish project? As you can tell from the post title it comes from a film. "Enchanted" to be precise. I got around to watching it. I know a lot of people consider it overly kitchy (why hasn't blogger spell-check heard of it?). I for one think the producers where mocking themselves with it. No? Well you don't have to believe me of course ^^. I will however stick to my hypothesis.

If you start from 4:44 you can see the dress I mean in action. As well as Giselle's "cutting layout". That shot actually made me smile. But not for the same reason as HE did. It's more like the seamstresses perspective  ;).

Anyone who knows me also knows how much I love dresses like that. The full skirt and the fitted bodice: Oh my! I do believe the bodice has a lot of boning, with the bones between the lining and the fashion fabric. The boning channels seem to be by sewing straight seams down the bodice. All in all it reminds me of stays.

So that's the dress I'd like to sew. Do you think it's prom worthy? I know I can neither pull of the colours nor the flowery print. I can't pull of prints in general. In the little flowery ones I look like a child in a nightgown. And quite frumpy too. In the large prints I tend to look like an overhung Christmas tree. Geometric and non-flowery prints work from time to time. But I don't think it would be formal enough. So maybe shiny, navy fabric? I wear a lot of navy as it is my favourite colour. So to spice it up maybe a bright pink petticoat?

Come to think of it, the first dress would probably suit me well too. And it reminds me of the Titanic swim dress. As a matter of fact I haven't seen Titanic yet. As far as I know there's no book that says you can't admire the costumes though.And know the music of by heart. I'm strange like that.

A fitting question

For the next pattern drafting step I'd have to use my own sloper. Unfortunately it doesn't fit any more :(A mixture of dancing and stomach flu has caused me to slim down. I didn't actually loose weight. It's more like putting on muscles in the calf, thighs, but, lower abs .... okay everywhere. Even the bottom of my feet!

But I digress. The point is that I feel like I'm wearing this when I put on a "dress" made from my sloper. I nicked the pic from the lovely Marissa at her wonderful blog. You should really check it out if you haven't done so yet. This dress for example gets transformed into the cutest thing ever.

The really important question now: Should I draft new slopers (again!?) and make my skirt pattern from those? Or should I hope to put on weight again and make it from my old sloper?

Oh and just because I love stealing pictures I find on the Internet and sharing them with you. This is what a blogger suggested to put on clothing labels:

I got hacked :(

Yeah that's right: A very mean trojan attacked my computer jumbling up ALL my files in the process. So instead of spending my time sewing or knitting I played around with  my computer. I love to hear music while I get crafting and it annoyed me that I couldn't. But after a few thousand crashes and hours spend in safe mode I got it out. Let me tell you it was not fun: I had to delete tons of files and redirect loads of processes too. It was almost 40 (!) in total.

On the bright side:

• I now know that my antivirus hasn't been able to update in almost 3 month (Whoopsie! Why didn't I notice before?)
• I won't complain about nerve racking sewing details or difficult projects ever again! If I do you may send me another virus :(
• I also took the time for a computer clean-up. I can't believe how much faster it is now :)
• I am healthy again! No more yoga pants and ugly, comfy knit-skirts for me. Even though I'll still wear the later for dance practice.
• I have new dance shoes! They're just plain, normal, golden dance shoes. Exactly like the pair that died on me! BUT: They're a size smaller! So they don't keep falling of. And they're still clean. Until next practice that is.
• I have a new dance partner. I just don't know who yet. Most of the options aren't quite as good as my old one. But they have talent. And they're way better than my replacement! Who had a knack for toe-stepping and boob squashing by the way.
• I have training tomorrow. For six hours or so <3 Yes I am crazy. No I can't just not dance: It's addictive! But I won't be able to post tomorrow.
• I found a RTW blouse that actually fit. Okay ... it's not really meant to be worn with a top underneath and the top buttons open. But if I do it just fits!
• I have sketches for the CCP. Now if the scanner worked ...

Butterfly