Autumn Zebra

Hi peoples! I got a new camera! Actually, WE got a new camera as a wedding gift from Gary's work. But within 5 seconds I had it out of the packet and the battery in and was taking pictures. Then later I put in the memory card, although the camera has a little in-built memory, I'm not sure how to access it. Perhaps I have to take the card out again. So here are some pictures taken with it: The cat Mine and Lisa's wedding flowers Close-ups That's all for now. I think it is bed time, I am still sick. We are going away for 5 days, so no posts. Neh neh.

The wedding and reception went well, as you will be glad to know. Thanks to those who came, and for your gifts too - we seriously didn't expect people to really give as anything, so we got home and looked at them and were like, what the hell?! Thanks to the people who couldn't come who would've if you could. It is a real shame because you are some special people that I would have really liked to have there, you know who you are. And now I am staying up late mucking about on the computer because now I have time and can start doing all the things I wasn't doing when making stuff for the wedding. As a result of my sewing however, one person now wants me to make things for her, and another one of my friends wants me to make her dress for the formal. She says "I know you'll do a good job". Hmmm, sometimes I do a good job, but no one sees about 35% of the stuff i try and make because it is awful or too messed up to finish. And I hate about half of what I make, o...

Thanks people for your congratulations, and hope to see some people tomorrow - just an update for anyone around reading now - the ring engraver had a heart attack so the rings had to be sent to Wellington, but we got them back 2 days ago. The ring engraver is apparently still alive, so that is good; the best man missed his plane - he is arriving tonight but his new plane is now delayed by an hour, the groom is at the airport waiting for him; the cat broke one of the cake decorations (we painted little Warhammer 40k figures, awww; they are about 1 1/2" tall) but it is glued back together now; my mother and sister each spent over an hour picking shoes and now they aren't sure they are right. My shoes were picked in 5 minutes off the bargain table, and I'm not sure I am that worried about them; the groom is totally stressed out; the groom and bride are both ill - we went to see a movie today and I had to leave half way through to have a major coughing fit, you know, from all...

I often think I should have better titles for these, but I either can't think of any, or I feel I should have descriptive ones so people know what they are about. So, the fairy dress, right? The design is a handkerchief hem skirt, coming from under the bust, with gathered material over the bust, and straps of twisted material. The skirt is made by getting squares of material and cutting a circle out of the middle. I used two layers in the different materials, and offset them so that the points hung in opposite places. I tried it on the dressmaker's dummy, and it made it look pregnant with the skirt starting just under the bust, and it looked better if I put the skirt at the waist, and better more if it was a bit below waist, I think. See how this looks kind of nice: And this one looks kind of weird: But it looks better on the person. The bodice section looks nice here though, although in the finished item it is all gathered and so more puffy and less folded in a modern pseudo-m...

I don't really have much to say about this dress, at least not in picture form, because I don't have many pictures as it doesn't fit on my dress dummy as it is, and I don't want to resize the dummy, because then I would have to resize it back for me. However, I have a couple of things, such as material. Here, we have some lining material and two different curtain materials, stiffer and more opaque than the veil stuff; less netting and more like material. But kind of sort of plasticy. They didn't have any chiffon stuff at spotlight in the right colours when I went, except for $20/m or something, which would have made her dress cost more than mine as I would have needed at least 4 metres plus lining and zip, etc. I was actually hoping the whole thing would be cancelled due to improper material so I could use it to make light two-layer curtains, as they worked well together, but unfortunately not. I made an under-dress from the lining, which I made in a standard size 1...

So, finally we have the veil. Not really that finally though, cos the whole thing didn't take long, and you are getting blog entries within months, if not days, of me actually doing it. It turns out that the whole thing, when finished, looks very Turkish, or something like that. I started with a big piece of sheer curtain material, maybe 2.5 metres long, or maybe it was 3. I hung it over the dress dummy's neck stump so it was only about to the waist at the front and draping on the ground at the back. It looked pretty good, so I curved the corner at the front on one side with a pair of scissors while it was hanging there, then laid it on the ground and cut the other one to match. And we were all done making the veil. I could hem it, but that seems like a lot of hemming of horrible material for that sort of thing, and it will probably end up worse than if I had left it. Of course, then I had to join it to the hat. So I pinned it inside and went to have a look in the mirror, and i...

Since I have none of the stuff called buckram to stiffen the crown, the standy up bit, of the hat, I decided to use some of the 500 small cable ties I have instead. I taped to cable ties together at the ends, overlapping a bit, after chopping of the bulky bit, and curved it around inside the crown of the hat at the top, under the excess seam allowance (which I hadn't trimmed yet, although the instructions said to) and sewed down the seam allowance underneath it, securing it in its own little channel around the top of the hat. This stiffened the top and helped to hold it out. This meant you could see the stitching on the outside, but since it held it out better, I thought this might be ok. Then, I sewed the lining together, with a bigger seam allowance to make it smaller than the outside so that it fit in. I don't know how one was supposed to do this bit; I think it related to that remnants thing. I decided to reinforce the bottom edge of the hat with some cable ties too, and to...

Today at my work, they had a little morning tea of muffins, and gave me a card and a wedding gift (a fondue set, lol). Isn't that nice? So now everyone knows that my work is a nice work. :) They even made sure I had noticed the rather obvious exchange card ;) Whenever one has to sign one of those cards for someone, the ones that everyone has to sign, and it is all supposed to be a big secret, then you're thinking, they are so gonna know and what retarded thing am I going to write and they're going to think that I really hate them or something. Well, I have no idea when they did the card, and I didn't notice J come in with two large boxes of muffins either. She set it up on the table on the other side of the wall I sit by - it only partially divides the room, I sit by the opening - so I only had to move back half a metre, move right one metre, and then forward half a metre and I would have gone around the wall and be sitting in front of the muffins instead of my monitor,...

I didn't understand some of the instructions for my little hat, something about following the general instructions which said, abbreviated, to cut the pattern tissues for remnants and then pin them to the corresponding fabric remnant. And then later it talked about using pattern pieces it hadn't told me I needed in the list it gives you at the start, but which I think related to the remnant bit. So I don't get that bit. and instead of labeling the "remnant" pattern pieces normally, they draw the grainline outside the pattern piece beside it, for instance. Why do that? That's weird. So I'm ignoring that bit and making it up, as is generally necessary with patterns. Still, here is the outer layer, the fashion fabric (the pattern also refers to the outer layer, or fashion fabric, as merely "the fabric". What about the lining, is that not also fabric? No, wait, that is "remnant", I think. Whatever. I think they need to spend a little longer...

The wedding is fast approaching, and I have posted very little wedding stuff - because Gary is not supposed to see my stuff or something. Or maybe just not see me wearing it. But people wearing things make the best pictures! But the hat and veil are surely harmless? I want to have a huge veil that goes nearly head-to-toe, or at least head-to-knee, that I can have over my face initially, then back over my head, as veils are supposed to go. It will be shorter in the front though, and I shall try to arrange it such that there is less material in front and more folds of material at the back. It's very nearly time for bed, so I shall have to merely introduce the items in this entry, although I am about a third to half way through making the hat part. I shall explain the ingredients then, as shown here (ingredients and recipes, that's how I think of sewing ventures; cooking, less so): We can see here the pattern of course, which I did not buy for this purpose but merely because Vogue...

So, like I said last time, I wanted to do couching and stuff as the decoration on the zupan. I looked it up in some of the craft and embroidery magazines I have here, and drew some pics and made some notes. I chose some colours and thicknesses of cord and all that, and then went out and tried to buy what I needed and found that it was mostly unavailable. So I was annoyed and changed a few things and simplified things, and came back with some cord in appropriate colours. Although most of it, except the dark red was quite crappy and mostly all the same. There wasn't a lot of choices. I couldn't get the more complicated elements to work, and didn't have any cord thin enough to do the loops I wanted, and wasn't actually able to get some really interesting thick stuff either to loop over in the first place, and I was wondering if I would have enough time to do everything, as well as whether G would even like it or wear it because, like most men, he mainly wears only undecora...

Today I talk about how I made the fastenings for the zupan coat. I wanted to make the fastenings and trim decoration in the style of couching and cord and frogging. So that is how this came about. It is somewhat Polish-ish. Here is the finished picture of the pair so you know what we are talking about. I can't remember what they are called, so they are now the loop and the bobble. First, choose some cord. If you live round here, there are not many choices, and all the choices are cheap and nasty and only have the (gold) coloured thread on the surface and underneath is white. This means that any threads that get pushed aside and any fraying that happens will reveal ugly white which makes mistakes really a lot more obvious. Step 1 Measure your cord. First you'll actually want to play around with it and work out how much you need for the size you want. Bobbles need 2-3 cm (~1") more than loops, depending on the thickness of the cord, how many knots you tie, etc. I think mine...

Aha, buttons. Not really that exciting I know. These are for the zupan, like it says in the title, you know? Buttons: I wanted metal buttons with a shank, but the only ones were a bit expensive which would be ok except that they were totally awful and cheap in quality. I probably wouldn't have used them even if they had been really cheap, although I would have bought them. These cost 50c from the op shop for 11. Bonus. Buttons, WITH loops: And there you can see some of the cuffs folded back too. You don't get to see the whole finished outfits until after the wedding, ha ha. The loops are crappy stuff from spotlight, sewn on like that to make the loops. The picture did not work out well, as you can see. Basically all the trims you can get from Spotlight are totally crap. This stuff frays like crazy when you cut it, starting immediately, and although I tried to fold it under at the ends and neaten it up, it is mostly a disaster. You just can't tell in the disaster of a photo....

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...

Woohoo, lots of post writing I am doing (well, this is the second just now). These are the two materials for the zupan. A dark red wool blend of some type off Trademe. We determined that this colour looked at least somewhat good on G some time ago. Then I tried to find material in that colour that was preferably wool and we couldn't find any anywhere. Not even if we looked at ridiculously expensive stuff. I found one that would do but we weren't really happy about it, and it was a wool crepe so rather light and floppy, so I would have had to interline it to get a good effect. I felt wool was an appropriate authentic material, and I didn't want it to be wussy and thin, as that would not be authentic effect for a country with rather sub-zero winter temperatures. Then I found this on Trademe and bought it and it was great. The lining of course should be linen, which is also hard to find in Dunedin, and I also looked at cotton. I thought maybe a polished cotton would be more l...

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...

The velvet yesterday wasn't actually my latest purchase, it was just the latest to arrive. The ACTUAL latest purchase, and now the latest arrival, is this velvet stuff, which is backed by that fluffy quilting stuff and then quilted. Here it is: It is actually different colours in different places, it isn't just weird lighting. Although in real life the dark colours are kind of deeper and the light colours are more like dustings of gold and it actually looks very opulent. It is 1.8m of 150cm wide. It cost me $33.50 including postage, because the postage was $8.50. Bizarre, because that other stuff I got yesterday cost $10 postage, which is more money but that was two big rolls in a huge parcel, where as this was a little parcel about half the size of a pillow (an averagely decent kind of pillow, but not a super puffy one.) And the roll of interlining I'm sure I talked about at one stage, that was only $3.50 postage. And here is a close up of the quiltedness. This is a more r...

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: ...

So this weekend I didn't feel like writing 4 blog entries in preparation for the coming week like I did last weekend. But we'll see what happens in the next 1.5 hours. It would be a lot easier and more fun if the right shift key on this keyboard didn't only work intermittently. It hardly ever works when I try to do a capital 't', but I'm not sure if that's just pretty much the only letter I capitalise with the right hand. Other than 'i'. I think it is just the shift key that is breaking, stupid shift key. This weekend, what did I do? Garden Well, I cut the lawn a little on both days, with the scythe, and now it is a lot shorter, and a lot flatter. I think I am getting better though. The lawn looks a lot bigger now as well without all the grass. G and I also cleared the sticks off at some point, maybe that was last weekend and I already talked about it? Anyway, from when the hedge and stuff was cut, there were sticks all over the grass. Actually, they...

Yesterday we went and talked to a marriage celebrant who, unbeknownst to us when we organised it, is the head of the board of the place Mum works. Fancy that. She was nice, and had a funny little, fluffy, enthusiastic dog. It was actually cute, despite being small. She gave us a folder of stuff to take away to look at. We don't really have any ideas for the ceremony and stuff, but when we look at examples I'm sure we'll find stuff we like and don't like. It is hard to think of things in isolation or to start from nothing. We also had a birthday dinner for Dad, so I didn't get to do anything else except write a little bit more on the Christmas Eve dinner blog-entry-in-progress. I didn't think I would get it finished and to bed in any reasonable time - and I am very tired the last two days - so I wrote this instead at the last. However, I think it is nearly finished, so maybe tomorrow. Oh yeah, glasshouse, I promised yesterday I would put a picture. Well, here is...