Autumn Zebra

Woohoo, today I sewed together the inner layer - the lining and one "strength layer". I have seam allowances of about 3/4" or 2 cm. But my best sewing machine only has seam allowance guides of 1cm and 1.5cm. So I either had to sew it once using one of those seam allowances and then sew it again using the width of the presser foot after arranging the needle in the correct place, or I had to sew it on the cheap plastic machine that can barely cope and isn't as COOL. But I didn't want to sew it twice so I did it on the plastic machine. I did all the seams but one, and then realised that the needle was in the wrong place so the seams weren't 2cm anyway, and I had to do them again. Hmmm... Here is the picture of the inner layer. There won't be any front opening in this one. It is also going to be VERY thick when it is finished. The kind of corset that ADDS inches. But at least the ratio will improve, and the ratio is the important thing. Why won't it show ...

A while ago I started making a pattern to make an overbust corset, and then I made it some more, and then I finished it and I wasn't really sure about it and I left it for a long time. I have been wanting to make another corset for ages and of course I had the pattern for this one, and I already had the material and had some options for the lining. But I was working on other stuff, or at least trying to. Since my last one was actually quite good, but I also didn't like it, I think I was scared to start actually doing this one in case it ended up bad or something. I'm not really sure about the pattern. But I think it will probably be mostly right; there isn't really any reason why it shouldn't be. And I have to make it to find out how the pattern is, really. The design is only a simple one, and next I want to make a pattern with more complex lines instead of making them straight up and down. And I want to try a different way of making the pattern. Finally, there is a...

The formal (formal dance, prom-type thing) that I made the red dress for was last night, and I haven't heard from the person for whom I made the dress, but my brother is in the same class and said it looked very good and was one of the best dresses there. Out of perhaps up to 100 dresses, that is pretty good :) Hopefully it had no problems.

We just saw this movie " Perfect Creature ". It was the NZ premiere, apparently. It had too much gross stuff like blood and bleeding and injury for me, but otherwise it was cool because a lot of it was filmed in the city in which I live and in a nearby town's heritage Victorian District (a couple of streets) where I have been 4-5 times now. They did some very nice stuff merging real buildings with computer generated stuff. Eg. The building across from my work that I can see out of the window (the old central post office) is about 7 storeys high. In the movie there's the building, and then there's another 30 floors that they've made up. It looks pretty cool. That was kind of amusing because they just bought it to turn it into a hotel - I think it was bought by Hilton - and struggled to get resource consent to add one floor on top :D The movie is vampires, and a bit of steam-punk. Strangely, we only saw two goths at it, which is weird because it is clearly a go...

I'm not entirely sure if we're actually past Part 3 or if I just hate my work computer so much that it just seems like it. I was just looking through a list of posts I made on a particular forum, and some of them have been voted '5's. See, you can vote 1 to 5 on a post if you wish, and 1 is bad and 5 is good. A few of mine, about 1 in 7, have got votes, and they are all fives. This one got three votes. I'm so proud. It is in response to whether or not a particular person should get Vista for their computer: Don't do it! don't touch Vista! at least not until it works! About once a day, Explorer.exe crashes. Basic file operations fail. I can't unzip a file directly in to Program Files (or somewhere, I do it once a fortnight and have to unzip it elsewhere and copy it in). It is a slow UI - the expanding, the contracting, why doesn't the thing just open and close the windows? Sure, blank my screen for 5 seconds and then bring up a moronic message for me ...

The most interesting thing I have found recently has got to be this blog by a bespoke Savile Row tailor - The English Cut . The sad people that you are, I bet you aren't even slightly interested! He talks about the world of bespoke tailoring, what makes a good suit and his own business. For some reason, I think this is the most interesting and amazing entry . Look at that beautiful shoulder seam! I've always been vaguely interested in tailoring and at some point will actually make myself a jacket, but I am currently too scared. It seems so much more difficult than making other things. I also have no idea really how these things are supposed to look or fit. Given that you can buy an absolutely awful, badly made, entirely synthetic jacket from some of the women's clothing shops in town for $300 (even on special), I should be able to make myself both a jacket and trousers out of really nice material (eg. $50/m) and still end up spending less money. The suit is in my head - it ...

Just a few days after Amazon asked whether I wanted to extend my order for this book until December (ie. it might not ship until the middle of December) - they email and say that they are sending it! They got it! they have it! They are sending it to me! After waiting a few years before actually ordering it I finally did and it has been 3 months until it shipped. The other one I got a while ago ( this one ). It is going to be so cool. The book is filled with amazing things - just look at that picture on the cover! So purple :)