Autumn Zebra

I haven't posted much lately, I really haven't felt like it at all for some reason. Maybe I am bored of it all now? I have done about 150 posts in total I think, which is a fair amount. Maybe I should just try and do one a week or something? Anyway, I have nothing much to write, so thought I would share that I am waiting for this book (Historical Fashion in Detail: The 17th and 18th Centuries) to come from Amazon . I have looked at the book in the libraries and stuff and it is really cool, with each two pages showing a close-up photo of some cool item of clothing and the opposite one giving some information about it and showing a line drawing of the full item. It is really cool to look at the pictures and very inspiring to see the amazing things people have done, and the line drawings are enough to get a vague idea of how to make a pattern for a similar item. See example of amazing detail on the cover picture below, pinched from Amazon :) It was supposed to arrive last week or...

So I finished this nearly two weeks ago, but I didn't have any pictures I liked because I didn't have anything really suitable and good to wear it over. But now, here are some pictures. I don't really like the style, actually, I realised when it was made, but otherwise it is good and well made I think. First the inside and outside layed flat. Then me wearing it wwith 3 different shirts. :) Some photos not very good because it is a bit dark in the room and cameras don't like that. You'd think 2 light bulbs in an average sized room would be enough. The best thing in the pictures is clearly my hair from the back.

The Latest test: The 4-Variable IQ Test The Results: Your brain: 40% interpersonal, 120% visual, 40% verbal, 200% mathematical! Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious: Don't date someone if your interpersonal percentages differ by more than 80% . Don't be friends with someone if your verbal percentages differ by more than 100% . Don't have sex with someone if their math percentage is over 200% . Is that goo...

I've haven't written anything for a week or something. Haven't felt like it. I am starting to learn Polish, for the 986th time. However, this time I have this resource , at Pittsburgh University, which includes a textbook for first year Polish - for free and publicly available. How awesome. Anyways, when I learn, I'll teach you. I'm up to the third page of lesson 1.

After buying some really cool chequered material that cost more than I thought it would (but anything one makes out of it would be cool, and I am definitely making a jacket, and no doubt lots of other things), then I decided to not buy anymore material for two months - so not during May or June. G is instructed to hide the Spotlight catalogues from me, and I can only buy notions that I may need, and lining material if there is nothing else I can use and if it is either actually special lining stuff (so I won't decide it is too good for lining and keep it for use as something else) or if I buy it immediately before using and then use it straight away - once again so I don't just keep it and have to buy more. So it is very sad, no more material for 2 months. But don't worry - I still have tonnes you haven't seen yet :)

You remember those other black trousers I made, well these are the same pattern but a totally different material, and these are the ones I handed in - I got 87.5%, which is an 'A'. But we don't know what the average or highest marks are or anything so I am unsure what that really means. But it is pretty good though. I thought I had got more than I did for the skirt, but the skirt was also an 'A' at 89%. Dammit, I'm not getting better after all :( However, she did spell my name correctly this time, which is good. Anyway, here are my new ones. The material is a bit like pajama material in that it is rather thick and quite soft. Front, back and 3-quarter views :) See how I skillfully chose where to position the pattern pieces on the material, especially the yoke? They is awesome dude. (The material was the only cheap nice stuff they seemed to have when we were there, and we were sort of in a hurry. They had this material in many different colourways though. I wish ...

I think I've decided to go with making the Princess Bride dress after all, even though I'm not much sure why. Reasons against I don't really want a pink dress Reasons for There's not much else I'm likely to do with the pink material I might have to do something creative to get the sleeves to look anything like the movie, and creative = fun It seems easy, and I, or someone I know who is the same size, might have a sudden need to go to some sort of pseudo-historical dress-up party on a moments notice, and I will have something on hand all ready I also have a stack of new project ideas - yippee! The most useful one at the moment, if I have time, is to make a Tudor-style smock. This should be easy, and then if I decide to make more Tudor stuff later I will already have one layer that I don't have to worry about. The neckline needs to be wide to not show from under the dresses, which would be suitable for going under the Princess Bride dress also. What a good coincid...

Half the eyelets done! Only 16 to go! I did 9 today. I'll probably finish it on Tuesday?

What is the first thing that comes into your head when someone says that there is the possibility to go over to someone's house and watch a movie you've seen several times and own yourself? Why, we should go I'll make a costume, of course! I looked though our Princess Bride DVD for everything that she wears in it and drew some little pictures too. Although there was one outfit that I would rather have made, I really had very limited choice because I don't keep large pieces of material on hand. I have a lot of material, but of each individual fabric I only have a small quantity. Except for a small number of pieces bought for a specific purpose, and a couple that are "utility" pieces - frequently useful and not needing to be any specific colour. Although I do need more white linen to keep on hand - frequently useful for folk costume shirts and any historical underwear that might be visible at all, or simply to be more correct. Anyway, I had to choose a dress not...

The binding, at least along the bottom edge, turned out to be a lot easier than I had thought, particularly since I sewed it by machine and not by hand so it was speedy. It was purchased black bias binding, sewn on on the front first, then folded over and "stitching in the ditch" on the front to attach it to the back, although it had to be unfolded at the back or it didn't stretch over far enough. So all in all the inside is a bit ugly, but I suppose that doesn't matter too much. The outside looks good. I then alternated between cutting some of the cable ties to length (for boning) and making eyelets by hand. I don't have any decent eyelets that don't muck up half the time, so I don't want to use them for good things. The only time I've used them is for my goth dress where they are mostly decorational. To get them in you have to cut the material, and if you cut it too much then the eyelet will come out and the whole thing is a disaster, even if the eye...

I won't go into too many details about construction really, as there are various ways to do these things, and a million steps in a a variety of different orders. I made myself a big list of everything to do and in what order, about 20 things, and then partially followed it. Here's a picture for reference for this post. I cut out the other two layers and sewed them at the seams. I folded over the front and back ends of the inner layer and overlocked them and sewed them down as more boning channels, and cut strips of material and sewed them on next to these, but over a bit, to make the channels that go down the other side of the laces. I cut of the excess material at the bottom and sewed along the bottom to seal the channels. I remembered about the waist tape, that helps stop it stretching along the bit with the most stress on it, and sewed it on just in the seams and at the ends, which I just realised means that at the seams means it is essentially sewn onto nothing but other s...

I don't think I will get my corset done by Friday as I would have liked, so I shall break up the monotony of corset posts with an insect, since we don't have to get them all in by Friday anymore. I'm pretty sure I've talked about weta before, but this is a DIFFERENT weta from the last one. All the weta before seem to have been Ground Weta, as opposed to some type of cave weta with one back leg. Remember, there are "Weta", of which the ground weta is one, and then there are "Cave Weta" which are a different set of insects, although obviously fairly similar. This looks like a type of cave weta, as decided by looking at about 10 pictures in total of the two types, and using the great neural net we humans have as a brain to process and distill the information therein and do a bit of pattern matching... Big picture!! YAY!!! It's in a plastic container so that it doesn't jump away. If anyone has an entomologist for a relative or friend, ask them wh...