Dunedin Chinese New Year

I don't really have a lot to say about the Chinese New Year thing that was this weekend, although the Japanese sword and weapons demonstration Mum and G were in went well I thought.
G and I got some food when we were down there from the stalls, and it was pretty expensive for the amount you got, although it was nice. For example, $5 for some rice with a few spoons of curry from one place.
I really wanted a lantern that looked like pikachu, the pokemon, that I saw some people with, but they didn't have any by the time I got to go and buy one, so got this one instead. You put a candle in it and it looks pretty and you hope that somehow it doesn't end up burning the paper.
I think it's cute and kind of freaky, and now it hangs from the curtain rail in my sewing room :)

There was kind of a surreal moment before we went out (more surreal than a giant pink head with blue ears, even) where G and I were each whipping a practice sword out of its bag and replacing it with a wooden one, then doing up the bag, simultaneously (so that the wooden ones wouldn't look so weird carrying them around before the performance). I can't say that's a normal experience for most couples.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Polish Jacket, Zupan, The Second Post

Image
I think the last time I posted about this was quite a while ago, but I thought I should do some more actual sewing posts. Pattern Last time I talked about the pattern, but I thought I would add a bit more. Here is the pattern: Here is a bit of a glossary: LEWY - left PRAWY - right PRZÓD - front TYŁ - back KOŁNIERZ - collar RĘKAW - sleeve KIESZEŃ - pocket Isn't Polish beautiful? Unless the person you want to make this pattern for is pretty much the correct proportions, if not the correct size, I think it would be easier to simply make a pattern to their measurements in this shape rather than copying and then modifying the pattern. Unless you have made quite a few men's clothes before, because it is a pain. Front Closure The Polish jackets overlap right-over-left, unlike men's jackets from Western Europe (although in Poland now they will wear it Western style, but I mean at the time, they did it Eastern style). Sleeves and Cuffs The sleeve seems to have t...
Read more

Polish Jacket, The First Post

Image
In the weekend before Waitangi Day, I spent a lot of time trying to get the pattern right for a Polish jacket I am making for G, based on those worn in the 17th Century, I think. It is a zupan. Or a kontusz. It is hard to decide as it has elements of both, so it kind of depends on when the pattern was from. But I say it is a zupan - an under jacket rather than an over one, because the sleeves are closed and the neckline high. But many jackets of that type are also labeled kontusz, so who really knows. I had already made the pattern and made and modified the mock-up a couple of times, and I did several more mock-ups and alterations and eventually I think it is mostly right!! If I had started off with the pattern as it is now I would probably have tried to make it better, but I think it is good enough and both of us are sick of it. The problems came that I had to scale up a pattern from a picture on the computer which was not the right size and proportions for Gary anyway. This picture: ...
Read more

Zupan, Post 3 - Construction

Image
I can't really remember what I wrote in my previous posts, but here goes anyway. I did material, I did the pattern, I talked about the weirdness of it and Polish words.... So today we shall talk about construction or something. In fact, I think I shall change the title. There. So, I can't really remember much about making it that is interesting, but you know that the pattern was a pain to make and that it has a lining. The main part of the garment - minus the sleeves and collar I mean - was sewn separately in outer and lining fabrics to hide the seams. To make things a bit easier, I didn't sew the sleeves on at this stage, because sleeves can be tricky to sew on and might not end up eased and adjusted the same on the outer and inner layers - because I don't notch the sleeves and arm scye because I don't really understand it so I just put the sleeve in and make it work. So I put the inner and outer layers together and first sewed one of the front opening edges toget...
Read more