I Hate This Pattern

I do... Really... I hate it..
I bought this in October. Part of my birthday gift to myself...


It was cute and adorable and it took very little material since it was War Era.
I thought it would make up beautifully, and I guess it kinda did:

From a distance any way.... I hate the sleeves and the waist line is so tight I had to put two zippers into it because 9" one on the size wasn't enough, even with three buttons in the neck. The center darts done do it any favors and create and odd line in both the front and back.

I'll salvage it eventually, trace the thin pattern tissue onto newer pattern paper, and figure out what to salvage from it. Make the two darts into one dart on each side. Add an inch or so to the waist line so that more then a pixie can fit this dress and fix the scalloped neck line..

Not tonight, and probably not tomorrow, but at some point I will.

I've managed to frustrate myself with this piece so much that the dress in the photo above has been under construction since February. I was making it for a friend. And I was so unimpressed I stopped working it. Now I'm makig it to sell.. But I can't manage to get up the urge to finish it.. So It's sitting on my new work station in a heap. Waiting for me to sew in two seams by machine, fix the zipper in the side seam and hand seam the sleeves .that's it. An hour of work, and I can't bring myself to do it....
Don't even get me started on the blue polka dot one in the closest.

On a better note... I finished my undies...

The Alamo

We decided that since Best Boy is unemployed right now, and we had money and we were tired of being here in Big Hipster City, we'd go south for the day. Specifically we'd go to the Alamo, and be tourists. We're both of the Technicolor Disney Generation and grew up watching reruns of Davie Crockett and Sam Houston at the Alamo so we decided to check it out for the day...

For some reason I was expecting cactus and desert, not green and lush. I'm kinda slow and frequently forget that there was a point when we didn't have running water so when you settled some place, you settled toward the running water and water makes things green.. Duh, uh, err.. Scratch...
I'm not sure what's up with the face in this picture, but it kinda summed up the experience.

Here's Best Boy outside the Alamo...


Here I am on the grounds behind it... We couldn't take any pictures inside the place, but we did think it was interesting that the roof on it makes the inside of the place look like a mosque..
There was no roof on it during the famous siege, and Santa Ana was nice enough to burn the dead in piles in various places on the grounds, including in the place. It really does feel like you're standing in a crypt when you walk in there. There are big floral funeral wreathes everywhere... It's weird an kinda creepy. Best Boy is right, it's like Mecca for Texans.
We were there for the Fiestas commemorating the battle of San Ysidro... Or something like that. It looked like it was gonna be one hell of a party. There were bleachers every where and little old Mexican women out in their folding chairs staking out the good seats at 2pm and the actual parade didn't start until like 8pm.


So we checked out the River Walk as well.. it's actually below the main street level and wraps through a good chunk of downtown San Antonio... Oh, and you can drink down there while you wander around. Which we did.
The river is filthy... Ick.... All manner of crap floatin' in that thing... But's 10 degrees cooler down there then it is on the street level. Oh, and we had the worst Mexican food ever. It was like Taco Bell on worse and like six times the price. Ewww.... The Margaritas were good at least.

We beat it back to BHC early because the Weather Channel was calling for bad weather and we decided we didn't wanna drive through a Tornado...

Feet

I love my new photo editing program... Even if it is just a knock off of Photoshop.. It does what I want it too...

And tonight, after photographing (badly) a bunch of my sewing and realizing mid shoot that some one WAY WAY too big tried on one of my favorite halter dresses... I started playin' with the camera and my feet and my favorite pair of trashy stripper shoes..


As they appear in every day life.

In red.

And what I didn't mangle too badly with my lack of photo skills.




It's too big, it pulls to the right on me and I hate that I can't wear it because it's really great feeling material. Thank fully I have more. Bless the $2 rack.


My take on the most popular Butterick Pattern ever made. Those are little red and green shoes on that dress. Yes I wear this and yes I wear this with Red High Heels and I carry a Red Purse.
And everyone runs in fear.


Ultra Cute mini dress that I won't wear because it don't fit and it's not really my style. Made for the shop in ABQ. Never sold. Oh well...

Project Update

I've been sewing like a fiend...



This is the lining, and outer material for the pattern pictured...
Here's the almost finished product:





Remember the Playsuit?




I've got to get shots of the black dress and the Mexican Dress done.. Those are coming.
That's the update. More on the way.. More later...

Random 6%

I'm a member of FEDORALOUNGE which is a great site dedicate to those of us who have our heads firmly stuck in the past, as well as our beauty regimes and our fashion sense.

I don't know many Loungers in real life, only a handful, and only one other one from Albuquerque.
She's really sweet and very pretty and younger then I am. I used to see her every Tuesday night at the Heights Community Center an I always thought was adorable. I was usually too pooped to talk to her much and too tired and stressed towards the end of my time there to do anything other then muddle through in a daze.

Never the less, I know who she is, and I always look forward to seeing her stuff on the board.
The other day as I was looking at a page about Vintage hats and debating posting some pictures of my own small but loved collection I came across this:

I stopped short. I knew that Skirt! I most certainly did!! The thing about me, is once I make something, I don't forget it. I remember the material, the garment, the feel. I made that pencil skirt back in 2004.. And I remembered making it. I had lined it in gingham to give it some firmness. I debated for ages what to do with the cloth. It was good quality cotton and I loved it. Eventually I decided I needed a skirt in it. I made one, wore it about four times decided I looked campy as hell in it, and sold it to Buffalo Exchange getting back about what I spent in material.
I never saw it again.

Suddenly, on one of my favorite people, my old skirt!!
I emailed her and asked her to confirm the details and where she bought it. Yup, no doubt about it. That puppy was mine!
Yay!!

Recap

Again with the lack of posting. What is my damage I ask you?

It's been another long week. The LoneStar Roundup was last weekend. I had a few friends pop through town for that and I got to track them down and hang out, so that was a lot of fun.

My boy met Bert and Ernie, and had a blast. He's met Ernie but not Bert. The three of them together along with their side kick Grover. Let's just say that it was an interesting car ride back to the hotel they were staying in, which I swear was half way to frickin' Houston. Nice one boys.

The car show was really cool. I think the actual car show was bigger then Vegas or almost as big. And that didn't count all the people who brought out their Rod or Bike and didn't register it to be in the Expo grounds. I also think I like it more then Vegas.
No, it wasn't the crazy insanity that Viva is, there wasn't dancing and shop 'til you drop vendors open all hours of the night. And yes, you had to maintain some level of sobriety to get you from one end of the Expo center back down to Congress Ave or out to the Flyrite chopper's BBQ on Sunday.
It is a good time though. A really good time! It's more affordable then VIVA in a lot of ways ($10 for a weekend wristband, another $20 get in to the C-Club to see the Burlesque Show and Southern Culture on the Skids) music at the car show and vendors on a tree lined walk, both food and clothing. And most of all Cars. And bikes. And lots of both. It feels more "working class" and more friendly. No endless parade of beautifully coiffed women wandering around giving each other the stink eye randomly. Or clutching their newly purchased Trophy Queen bags and glaring at everyone. Just a lot of really cool people. No massive amounts of stupidly drunk greasy boys lunging and gurgling at everything. Things do come to an end at a certain time, you can get sleep and do it all again the next day. I didn't wake up Monday feeling like I'd been hit by a train.

I met cool people. Among them, the really sweet owner of Lucky Lou Shoes. She was so frickin' awesome. I wore my pair to the show, as I wear them most every excuse I can get. If you haven't seen them, you should... It's here. Yes, they are expensive, but you know what, I love 'em more then my flip flops and they are like wearin' hip Doc Scholls. So anyway, she also like my halter top. Which I made myself. And she carries the purses that I love, those would be HBNYC bags. I was also carrying my HB bag. We chatted for a few minutes and I had a fan girl moment and told her how I'd tracked her shoes down and drooled over them for months at a time after passing them up in VIVA years ago. She promised me business cards for HBNYC after Viva.
I always worry when I meet people who I've seen online and who do things like own shops and have their own line of something or claim to fame. I've met some who are really sweet people who love their customers and are happy that their product or art form or what ever makes people happy and that they pay to come out and see it. Then I've met some people who act like they're almost offended that you like their products or waited for six months to catch them on tour or whatever the case maybe. Or they're simply too burned out from a long weekend of people going "uh dude, you can get that in Wal-Mart, Mexico, fill-in-the-blank, cheaper" or "what ever, that's cute but I'd never wear it" or some other smart-assed remark to really care that you love what they are doing. So when she was so personable and sweet, she totally made my day! Yay!

I left the car show completely inspired, with a sunburned and enthused boy beside me. I went home dreaming of inventory and planning for next year, because... I saw NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE pedaling vintage or even rockabilly inspired women's clothing and I saw about a million girls of different sizes, all dressed up. The boy helped me hatch plans for a temp dressing room, promised to help me engineer duct-tape dummies to model said something and had a short list of women he felt should be recruited to toddle around handing out fliers in my creations.

Another reason that I love my boy. He's right there with me. My friend Chicano Greaser is like that too. It's so great to have someone who shares your vision and helps you build on it. We wandered through the dusty swap meet, oggling bike frames, grabbing business cards and making lists of what he needed to do what he wanted to his bike. Last night we sat on the floor testing the new grinder and cutting wheels and watching the sparks fly.

Yep. It was awesome. Tonight, he's wrapping me in duct-tape so I can get dress form built.

Okay, almost done ranting...

What else... Oh, and I'm applying for a part time job in possibly the best grocery store I've ever been in.. It's the size of an frickin' Target. 85000 square feet of wonderful foodie goodness. Everything from Frog-legs to Tiger Lilies. I could eat myself goofy in the cheese counter and then wander back around for some Sushi that's as good as anything I've had from Sushi King or Shogun.

And ya, I think that's about it..

Oh, and of course I'm sewing. .


View 1. The Big View. In black demi-sheer crepe with little white dots on it, and black buttons. For the new gig, which I hope I get. And if not, for the hell of it. It's a $6.00 dress.. Goddess bless the $2.00 table.

That's it... I'm done.. I swear..