tagged by clare!

the lovely clare tagged me in the 8-questions to answer chain letter thing yesterday. im pretty sure i know how this works. if i dont answer and forward it to 100 friends by midnight, the ghost of a 12 year old girl who was killed by a train will sneek through my window and suck my soul out of my nose and eat my eyeballs and i will never find true love, but if i DO, i will win the lottery, someone i care about will reveal something totally important to me in 5 hours and my clothes wont shrink in the dryer or something like that.
so, here goes!
1. Have you ever had a sewing-related injury? Give gory details! If not, any irrational fears?! if i had a nickle for every time i have slipped my finger into the moving needle on my sewing machine, or sliced into my own leg with a rotary cutter, i would have at least $10. the rotary cutters are the worst, they just bleed and bleed and bleeeeeeed! i also have burnt myself with the iron about a billion times. i seriously have some sort of non-sexual (i swear) iron fetish or something where i HAVE to iron every pattern piece, inch of fabric, bias tape-- everything!

2. What would be in your perfect picnic basket?
a bunch of cheeses, but none from cows (allergies), fruits and berries, this really good peach and chicken salad my sister makes and a bottle of wine. but i would like with my basket, tyler, my doggies, a big hat and a croquet set

3. If you had to spend 3 consecutive days on the same train, who would you want with you and why?
definitly tyler! we are equal assholes and can have a good time anywhere we go. plus a train sounds like it would be awesome to go on!

4. What garment/accessory do you wear the most?
easily, my crinoline. i wear it probably 2-3 times a week! i love it soooo much! i got it super cheap on etsy from this fine woman and it has been one of my best vintage purchases so far!

5. What’s your “desert island” book/movie and why could you read/watch it over and over?
the book i choose is easily the little prince. i am *obsessed* with this book. i even have a tattoo on my arm of the little buckaroo!

my pasty-ness keeps it lookin' new!

my movie would be metropolis. there is nothing about that movie that isn't absolutely amazing. last year tyler and i saw it with a live orchestra, it was amazing!

6. Which pattern/vintage style have you been thinking about lately?

tap shorts. they are all i want to wear- if not a skirt or dress! this morning actually i finished up these pretty little shorts for my etsy shop!

from one old pillowcase!

7. What’s your sewing threshold? As in, what will you let go, what must you absolutely fix?
anything that still has life in it. right now i am putting a 1930s/1940s evening gown together again. all of the thread dried out and the dress fell to pieces, but the pieces are still fine so its going to be brought back to life! thats also why i use almost exclusively old linens to sew from. as i see it, there are enough beautiful fabrics and materials in the world already, so why not use those up before we make new ones?

8. What are your favourite / least favourite words? These can be connected to sewing or not!
i call people 'buster' and 'buckaroo' a lot... tyler is always greeted as 'handsome' and my sister and i make that weird noise master pain makes in 'kung pow' all the time... you know, the one that goes, "meeeeeggggghhhhheeeeeeerrreeeeeee!"

ok, so girl from the ring, back the fuck off! im passing this on to:

molly at molly's sewing and garage sale adventures
debi at my happy sewing place
vivian at vivian von dimples
tilly at tilly and the buttons
and
sarah at rhinestones and telephones

so ladies, if you ever want to go on a date or kiss a boy or win the lottery or get both socks out of the dryer ever again, answer 4 of those questions and these 4 below!

1. What wouldn’t you be caught dead in?
2. What is your favorite holiday?
3. How do you relax?
4. What is one place that you really want to visit that you haven’t been to before?

beach weekend!

this weekend i joined tylers family for a lovely weekend beach trip! it was so nice :) the weather was perfect and the water, perfecto! we even had the opportunity to meet a bunch of parrots!

thats tyler in the back with the orange bird on his head and me in the front in the 2-piece. normally i dont think i look so uncomfortable in photos, but he totally gave me the bird named peepee. seriously dude? .... its just asking for trouble.

and BONUS: i didnt get burnt like last year when we went! this is a BIG accomplishment for me. i might be the whitest white girl out there, so the sun rays hunt me down and get me every time. last year, i ended up all red and blistered like this:

shits nasty, yall

we also passed up a shopping center that was clearly designed with me in mind:

thats right- fabric, donuts and booze!

so i also happened to have on the best beach outfit of all time while i was there! it is the one i have on in the bird photo

sorry for the awkwardness, i cant find my tripod so i have to take photos like a 15 year old on myspace.

the skirt is from butterick 9633 and the top is from view c on stretch & sew 1362.

i made the whole thing from one full sized fitted bed sheet. i was hoping there would be enough for some cute little bloomers but the stripes wouldnt fall together right. i really like the top, and will definetly be making another one in a more 'water-friendly' material.
so i had this amazing get up and then i also got a package in the mail just before we left. it was the shoes ive been waiting for all week long! the *perfect* shoes for this outfit- behold!

a.maz.ing.
i love these shoes so much! they are comfy, cute and have a wedge! i got theme here if anyone interested... which you should be! this also was the first time ive gotten to wear 2 shoes in a month! i got my foot x-rayed the other day (not broken, possibly a torn muscle or ligament) and they gave me a new air cast i can fit either in or over my shoes. thank goodness, i was getting really tired of hobbling around in one shoe all the time!

and speaking of, let me show you my skirt i made for that dr appointment!

hazaah! its TIME 2000!

i dont know what is the deal with this fabric, but i love it! it used to be a set of curtains (little ones) but i really needed something lazer-y to go with x-rays... right? its from simplicity 8126.

i decided against the pleat in the front, partly because it wasnt right for this fabric, partly because i didnt have enough of the fabric. it can out awesome though and tyler, who loves him some sci-fi, really like it a lot.
win.


*update-ish*
i found a photo sort of, of my awesome beach getup!

procrastinate much?

yes, its true. i am the biggest procrastinator possibly of all time. deal with it.
so since i've been at home enjoying the unemployed life, i've been working on quite a few sewing projects! so, here it is, about a month's worth of sewing!

i made this out of some yard-sale fabric for a wine tasting tyler and i went to:

spadea s-391

this one used to be a bed sheet, but i needed a fancy croquet dress:

simplicity 4982

actually i made this a while back from one big-ass sheet but never photographed it:

the super-sized pockets are the best part!

i can't find the pattern number! ugh!

some more yard sale fabric:

advance 8524

my pretty purple blouse from yard-sale fabric:

simplicity 6276
and my first britches! sailor ones from an old tablecloth! ahoy:

simplicity 3688 (i drafted my own sailor flap)

and this really quick little blouse from a pillowcase:

simplicity 4438

not too shabby, eh? there is one more dress but it's in the laundry... and i am currently working on one more for myself which may or may not be the worst dress ever, and i am making a super business wardrobe for a friend of mine who will be working with the U.N. next year... photos to come!

...eventually.

unfinished projects

there are more than just these. but you dont need to know that. for all you know im a liar and these were all finished this morning! they weren't, but whatever... BEHOLD! LINENS!

dress 1 used to be a pillow case. it is both cute and spring-y... but i havent finished the hem on bottom because hems are stupid and are my least favorite part of making a dress. that and zippers, but only because i suck at zippers. if i was better, i probably would like it more. but hems, pfffft, those a just boring. this baby is all held together with bows!

dress 2 i DID finish! woo wooooo! i made it for a friend of mine, plus i even had enough to make another dress for her little girl of the same fabric. it used to be a twin size sheet. and, plus plus, it has a zipper! an alright zipper!

dress 3 is doomed to roam the earth for the rest of its pathetic life unfinished like a zombie dress because all of the fabric got thrown away before i was able to finish cutting out the peices for the interfacing. and it has a zipper. and it doesnt even fit me because i have small boobs! grrr.... im just so bitter. its made out of a sheet but i cant find another one anywhere, or a awesome fabric to finish it with.

sounds to me like im full of excuses.
meh.

making things that dont fit. crap.

so, sitting at home (not really, but being off work) for 4 days is amazing. i ate an assload of food for thanksgiving, and then did that again friday, saturday and sunday. hit some amazing garage sales, helped one of my most favorite people in the universe move, ate some huge chalupas, and i mean, these were like the mount everest and mount kilamanjaro of chalupas... and then on my last day off decided to make some clothes. success! i made some really cute stuff this weekend- like, daaaaamn, thats cute, cute.

but... problemo. my big ol' turkey gut doesn't fit them! well, my turkey gut doesn't fit into one thing. the other two things i made are actually too big. perhaps ill wear them to conceal said turkey gut until it goes away... except for one is a skirt and the other is a dress.... so i could wear that skirt and it'll stay up, but that dress looks like a big ol' burlap sack on me...especially in the chest and no matter how much i eat, i never seem to get turkey boob to match my turkey gut, which does fit the dress quite nicely.

why cant i bloat in proportion to the rest of my body? probably because i would look pregnant. ew. but then again that would be kinda cool because i could eat a whole bunch and then go shopping and get the really good preggo-parking spots! then when my belly wears off i can use all that extra space that was once food filled for shoplifting. but ill only steal more food and then give it to food banks or something and then ill be like the robinhood of sanantonioxly, and ill get a big giant rooster to walk around with me wearing clothes and singing roger miller songs.

ok but back to those clothes. one of these thangs is a little dress i made from a late 1950's pattern, except i made it out of a vintage pillow case and now it looks very very mod. unless you take your fashion tips from my dad. then it looks 'like one of them go-go outfits or somethin.'
i like that one more.
also, i made a little skirt from some old curtain fabric. i think its really cute... or, as our friends down south would say, muchos cuteos.
and then thirdly i made this pretty little ditty from a new pattern. no way in hell is my turkeyness squeezing into this.
looks like you win this round etsy. well played sir, well played...