Lesson Learned

So, as a sufferer of projectitis, I generally plow into a project, full steam ahead, without the proper planning. Or even without the proper knowledge necessary to successfully accomplish the project. This generally results untold hours of frustration, of re-working and oftentimes abandonment of projects altogether.
I mention this because today I decided to look through a book I have here on my bookshelf. The book is titled Embellished Bras: Basic Techniques. I've had it for quite some time ... a friend gave it to me when I mentioned I wanted to make my own covered bra for bellydancing. Well, the covered bra is now done, and done poorly. It's definitely wearable, and a casual viewer wouldn't notice that it is poorly constructed, and will probably last through only a couple performances. But anyone who looks at it from less than 5 feet away will know that it's just mangled. And I think back to how many times I had to re-do every part of the process. How many pieces of fabric I wasted because it wasn't working. Ugh. I feel like such an idiot, because now I flip through this book and it explains how to do EVERYTHING. It's perfectly illustrated, and explains every step of the process in a way that any novice sewer would find totally clear. But did I read this book before jumping in to my bra project? Oh heck no! That would require forethought!
Sigh.
I guess it just means I need to make another one!

while the cat's away ...

Nitro's out of town, so I have the house to myself this week. It's also raining (!) so I am somewhat stuck indoors. I had visions of all sorts of spare time in the evenings where I'd be a whirlwind of creativity and then be a cleaning dervish as well! No such luck on either count.
The "real" workload has been really intense, leaving me pretty well burnt out by the end of the day, and no time for the rejuvenating workouts that usually kick my creative drive into gear.
The original plan was to spend some time on my painting. I got a book from the library called Microcosmos that I'd hoped to paint an interpretation of one of the pages onto my big 5' canvas (used to be the 'mares' painting but the mares are long gone and now have been through several phases of birds and then a swamp, and now just swirly doodles). But I haven't gotten into it. I just can't.
But then yesterday I had to start pawing through my fabric in order to finish up a project that I've been working on for belly dancing -- I had only a small scrap of my harem pant fabric left to make a vest out of, but not quite enough, so I was looking for another coordinating fabric that would complete the vest. Sure enough I found, a dusty rose colored silk that I'd been hanging onto for a long, long time, that came from great grandma's, I believe. But I also found lots of goofy little scraps. Some no bigger than my hand, some only a few inches wide but several yards long. Totally worthless for making anything out of, so why am I saving? That's when I decided I'll try my hand at a quilt.


This is something I've always wanted to do, but I lack the dedication. The stick-to-it-ness. Also, I know for a fact that as soon as this project gets put away (which it will need to do, since it's set up on the dining table and eventually I'll have to eat), I'll forget about it and it will never be finished. But, I really do want to try to make something beautiful with all these pretty little scraps. And so, inspired by the book Quilter's Playtime I've decided to just start sewing. Nothing quite as "planned" or organized and definitely not well-done, because I have no idea how to do this, but at least I'm getting started, and trying to figure out how to make these things come together.

At first I thought I'd create one big radiating "sun" of fabric strips, but then after playing around I decided that I'd need several big suns, and then come up with pieces that fit into the gaps. So, I've got one sun started, and another coming along.
Looking through that book, though, has me really wishing I understood how to make some of the gorgeous patterns, how to sew the pieces together so they lay flat and smooth. I really want to get together with my amazing friend Luna Sea who is not only an incredible artist, but has made some of the most beautiful, creative quilts I've ever seen. I'd really like to spend a day working with her to learn from her. Plus, she's just nice to be around. :)

As promised ... pictures

The covered bra is coming along ... after some talking with a friend, I realized that as usual, I'm agonizing over details that won't really matter. This is my normal M.O. to agonize over tiny details at the beginning of a project so that everything is "perfect" only to get sick of the project and then just whip it together sloppily at the end. So many things are ruined that way, as I lose patience. So this time, I'm trying really hard to have an eye for the details that matter, and work carefully without giving up at the end.

And, here's another project that Nitro's been working on the past couple weekends: he made a headache rack for my truck! Now, he NEVER has a problem with losing patience. He's probably the opposite of me in this respect. He can maintain a level of perfection throughout an entire project, and always works slowly and carefully until a thing is done, and it's always done well. I wish I could take some of that for myself. Ah well, I'll just take advantage of it by using the finished projects.

Dress forms and bras.

The other day I saw an ad on Craigslist for a dress form for $70 which sounded like a steal. The last one I saw was $80, and someone had told me that I should have bought it, no questions asked. But I hesitated and it was gone. So this time I didn't hesitate ... only it was gone by the time I called as well. Which is probably for the best since I really don't have $70 right now.
In the meantime I've been trying to make my own beaded bra for bellydancing, and it's been a huge challenge without having any sort of form to use while covering a store-bought bra. At first, I tried just stretching it over a chair back, but the cups wouldn't hold their shape. So I put some melons in the cups and my husband proceeded to tell me that I should "dream on." I gave up, basically.
But then I got motivated again and really made some progress and figured I could borrow a dress form from a friend. That's when I found out that she sold hers for $35 at a garage sale the previous weekend! That is JUST my luck. So typical. She said, "Well, I know you're broke and not looking to buy anything right now so I didn't even think of asking you if you wanted it." Whatever. She did have another one I could borrow, and it's now in my living room, wearing a bra.
And I'm still frustrated.
Getting the fabric to lay flat, to line up the stripes, to just pin the stuff on there is driving me nuts. I am starting to think that maybe I have ZERO hand-eye coordination, since I am finding this process excruciating.
On the other hand, I'm finding that the results are very nice, I'm happy with what has been accomplished thus far. There have been some mistakes that I think are covered up nicely, at least nicely enough that a casual viewer probably won't notice. And there have been some successes that mean NEXT TIME will go better.
Pics to come soon, I am sure.

More racks

Because the rack for all my headpieces went so well, and was so easy to make, I decided to make another ... for necklaces. I'm so sick of having a tangled mess of jewelry in a box, and had been thinking of ways to make it easier, but without taking up space on my dresser (which tends to get covered in stuff way too quickly anyway). So, hooray! Yesterday I whipped up this little rack, and I'm quite sillily pleased with it.

I'm in trouble now.

It's not like I've been project free for the past forever long that I haven't updated. It's more like I haven't been motivated much to update. Partly because of "real" work... you know the kind that pays? But partly also because it's just sorta always been a hassle to update, since we were on DIALUP-speed internet and adding photos took like basically all day. No joke.
But then, to be honest, yesterday I had projectitis in the worst way, the sort I haven't had in a long time. The sort where I worked concurrently on three different projects because every time I looked at something new my attention would shift, or while I was working on one thing I'd get an idea for something else. It was terrible. I mean, terrible only if you're the person who has to clean up after me. It was fun for me. At the time. As for the person who cleans up after me? Oh yeah, that's me too. But me at a later time, so I wasn't thinking of her.

See it all started with a trip to the 99cent fabric store. Oh yes, such a place exists. It's in Solvang, and sure, the fabric may not be quality, and you may never know what's going to be there. But for a person like me, who just wanted to make a cute little trapeze dress out of some cotton/lycra knit? Perfect! There were so many colors and patterns to choose from, but the decision was actually pretty easy for me when I saw these. The one on the left is actually not a cotton knit, but it's a shiny stuff that I'm going to make a the same dress out of, only it will be "round 2" which will hopefully be just like the first one, only better because I'll have figured out what went wrong! And the stuff on the right is going to be a pair of dance pants!

Anyway, I got cracking on it immediately, sketching out a pattern on butcher paper. But then had to wait until yesterday to start cutting and sewing. Partly because I have a huge block about *cutting* fabric. Especially fabric that I'll never get any more of, like silk from Thailand that great grandma bought when she took a cruise at the turn of the century. Gah! How does anyone do it! I know I'll screw it up and be sorry. But this ... this stuff I feel okay about slicing up, because it was an investment of $3, and it won't kill me if it's screwed up. I think.

Anyway, I started by tracing a tank top that I already have and wear a lot. Then, I decided to do something interesting with the straps starting out as 3 separate straps then coming together as a braid along the neckline. I'm getting a bit confused as to how to re-attach them on the back side, and really wish I had a dressform right now so I could also get the length right. I tried to reach over my back and attach the strap with a pin, but it was uncertain at best. I hate trying to do this sort of thing. Having the right tools for the job sure would make these projects easier.

I DID invest in an awesome tool that I don't know how people live without, though. It's a long piece of metal with a hook at the end... when you're making these little straps out of fabric, and you have the sewn tube, inside out?? You know how it's such a pain to make it right-side-out? Well, this doohickey saves the day.

Okay, so I spent too long talking about the one project. I also made a rack for all my headpieces for bellydancing. It's awesome, and solves a problem I'd been struggling with for a while now (because some of the headpieces have flowers & feathers on them, you can't just stuff 'em in a box or stack them on top of each other).

And, I made this heart-shaped piece of wood. Mostly, I wanted to try out the band saw on something besides just cutting little dowels of wood for the hat rack. I wanted to see how close I could come to the shape I drew. I did okay, but I think I could do better with some practice. There were a couple "lumpy spots." But I do plan to finally use that chalkboard paint I got, and turn this sucker into a little chalkboard, maybe to hang outside the greenhouse.

But yeah, I never did sit still long enough to actually finish any of these things. When Jerad got home, he mounted the hat rack, so the only finished thing is the one he finished for me. Because I just couldn't focus long enough ... I kept flitting back and forth. And to be honest, I was supposed to be cleaning and packing for our camping trip. Sigh. And this is as far as I got. Beer, water, dutch oven, and (inside the dutch oven) potatoes. Well, I guess I better get cracking on the packing today.

Kaya's Bed

Recently, I made a pair of baby blankets. What a nightmare that was. I've made several of them before, based on an idea found at my very favorite local fabric store "The Cotton Ball." But my sewing machine just isn't up for the task, so every few inches, the thread breaks or tangles, and I have to manually pull the fabric through, which basically means I've broken the feeder mechanism and now I have to pull all fabric through.
But the blankets are soft and cute, and thankfully both were finished before the twins arrived. I was going to make just one, because my patience ran out about halfway through the first one. This is usual for me, to run out of patience before the project gets even close to done.
Kaya, being none too helpful, thought the whole adventure was for her. She would not get off the blankets as I was working on them. And the scraps of fabric were cuddled obsessively. I decided that I'd make her a dog bed out of the leftover material, which I had a substantial amount of. That didn't happen until 2 months later, but I finally made it and did just about the shoddiest job of it you could imagine. But I was tired of having this giant bag of fabric in my living room (and there's no closets here, so I had to leave it in the living room) and I had been gifted a bunch of stuffing, so it was time to either do it, or toss everything.
So yeah, now Kaya has her very own cuddly dog bed that looks totally ridiculous but she seems to love it.