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collared ruffles

For my first project in class, I'll be making a collared button down shirt with 3/4 length sleeves and ruffles on the bottom edge of shirt & sleeves. You can see the bottom sliver of the picture shows the light peach-colored cotton I picked (on the bolt, it said "flesh" for the color). The pattern I'll be using is New Look, 6952, view C.

Right now, I'm still tracing out the pattern for my size onto trace paper and cutting that out. The general practice is to transfer the pattern to trace paper, and pin that onto you to check and adjust the fit, then cut the fabric according to your customized trace paper pattern. Apparently, according to the back of the pattern envelope, I deviate from norm with an extra 2 inches around my waist, haha. Good thing the pattern includes lots of ease at the waist, so I don't think I'll have to alter it. (Though I did have a quiet moment of horror when I looked at the measurements for the wrong size and thought my waist was 6 inches too big.)

sleeveless and blousy

I actually finished this shirt a few weeks ago, but didn't post until now because I didn't have the pictures. I usually have an idea of how I want a photo to look, but can't take it myself since I have to wear the thing. So it takes a while because I have to make someone else (Steve) take the pictures, and it's hard to get what's in my head into the camera. I think I'm going to give up on this soon and just take an ugly picture in front of a bathroom mirror.

Anyway, it was a pretty straightfoward project to do. Used french seams again because the fabric was all ravelly.

I had trouble finishing the edges in some spots, because this fabric wouldn't take any iron-pressed folds. For example, the middle picture shows my extra random stitching around the top of the side vent where the open finished-edge seam meets the closed french seam. And in the right picture, I messed up attempting to finish corners. I had to tack them down by hand, trim off extra fabric to reduce bulk, and then try to stitch it with the machine. The obtuse corners were ok after I figured out that I needed to baste it first, but the acute angles were hard to fold in and trim without any pieces sticking out -- I don't know how other people do that. :p

I'm generally happy with it, it's cute looking.

Next time, I would use a more sheer fabric. With the shape of the shirt, you need to be able to see through it so that you don't look lumpy, but for this shirt, I need to stand in full sun to get the effect. I was also expecting the sash to tie in tighter at the waist instead of sitting loosely around the hips.

This is the last posting for a week or so until my family is done visiting.

circles and points

A few years ago, during a very hectic trip to Paris, I saw a very cool painting at the Centre Pompidou. I snapped a picture but forgot to write down the artist and title. I tried a few times to find out who painted it, but never succeeded.

A few months ago, while randomly looking up interesting paintings, I randomly found the one I had seen and liked so much. Autour dUn Point, by Frantisek Kupka. I would really like a poster of it some day, but the only thing I could find on the web was this $39.17 print at postershop.com. The price could be overlooked, if only they didn't put such ugly text under the print.

Why did they have to make the caption so glaringly bad that it detracts from the painting? It's too big, taking up almost 1/4 the space of the painting itself. The black text looks like a true black, which washes out the blacks in the painting. It's centered on the poster, making the slight off-center of the "point" in the painting awkward. And, this is personal preference, but the font is a modern serif (Bodoni maybe?), giving the whole thing a dated look.

I guess I'll have to wait until they reprint it some day, or cough up the money (yeah right) and caaarefully trim off the borders of the poster.

photo on left by me, on right from postershop.com

back to (sewing) school

The fall term at Canada College starts next week, and I'm pretty excited about the classes I want to take. The first is Intermediate Clothing Construction, a follow-up to the class I took in the spring. The projects are going to be a collared button-down shirt and a jacket. We'll be learning how to do sleeves, collars, button holes, lapels, cuffs, and zippers.

The second class I want to take is Fashion Illustration. Even though I don't much like how most fashion illustration looks -- abnormally tall skinny people scowling or pouting while draped in dramatic clothing. Very 80's. I plan on drawing short cute girls in detailed outfits. How rebellious!

Unfortunately, the classes are already closed because I tried pre-registering too late. I'll just show up anyhow. Hopefully I'll get in, because at the rate I'm going, the custom dressmaking certificate will take me 4 years to finish.

poster design contests

2 design contests going on:

1 at speakup:
A poster design juried by some graphic design big wigs.

1 at shift:
A calendar/poster competition from a popular online design magazine based in Japan.

Since it's always helpful to know what sort of things the judges have picked before, here are the past winners of other contests. For the speakup tshirt contest, an ornate design with a gothic flair. Past winners of the shift calendar contest 2004, 2003 have been colorful, trendy, whimsical, detailed.

The shift one looks interesting, although I can't find any prize info. I guess it's simply the prestige :). Anyone (nokii) want to do it?

maple leaf tshirt

I had some blue-gray knit fabric leftover from a class project, and today, I made it up into a simple little t.

For the pattern, I just copied a shirt I already have (Old Navy perfect fit t) onto trace paper and transferred it to the fabric. I finished the edges very simply with a zigzag stitch -- no hems for me! To add a fun detail, I added a reverse applique in the bottom left corner of a tiny maple leaf. (It's a silver maple leaf -- I had wanted to do a Japanese maple, but I was afraid that people might think I advocate medicinal pot :D.) The leaf looked much nicer when I drew it, but my control over the sewing machine isn't all that great. I think it still looks ok though.

To do a reverse applique, you attach a patch of fabric in your contrast color to the wrong side of the shirt. When you sew it on, you sew in the shape that you want your applique to be. Then you (very carefully) snip out the top layer inside your shape so that the bottom shows through. With a knit fabric, I don't have to worry about edges unravelling, but just in case, I added two rows of stitching.

comics for rainy days

First 6 pages of the amazing comic project with emily (and nokii) are done and a simple web site has been made. Check them out. I will be putting up concept art on that page in the next few days.

the propriety of deadheading roses

When I started taking care of my rose, I read everything I could about the proper way to keep it alive: the proper way to water, prune, the feed, and so on.

So, after the first bloom had withered away, and before it formed a rose hip, I properly encouraged the plant to bloom some more. I used a pruner and clipped off the head at the first outward facing 5-leaflet leaf. After some time, another stem grew out of the 5-leaflet juncture below the snip, and after even more time, it became another bloom.

With my second rose flower, I was too lazy to go find my clippers and just snapped off the little head with careless disregard. The rosebush responded by shooting out three stems, becoming three rosebuds that all bloomed at the same time. Yay for laziness!