help me rhonda wah wee waah wahh

 (I recently had to make a call to cancel my federal insurance, which led me to being on hold for two hours and nine minutes, during which they had one minute-thirty instrumental musak song that looped for the entire two hours. I happened to also be listening (I can multitask like no one else) to a studio session of the recording of Help Me Rhonda which was essentially just them repeating the chorus while the Wilson boys' awful father yelled at them that clocked in at 40 minutes, and ever since the two songs have melded into one horrible never ending nightmare mash-up that has been stuck in my head for the last four days. I may be slowly going crazy.)

     After a long time of being too busy/lazy to make anything, I've been able to do some crafting lately, and it's been really great!  Sometimes it's hard for me to find motivation past any planning stages (I love planning stages- the more research, the better), and a lot of things I want to do never actually get done.  In addition to the Ikea shower curtain coat in my last post, I was able to make a short jacket out of a skirt that I found for a quarter at my favorite secret thrift store last time I went with my thrifting buddy (I also found two 3 yard lengths of fabric for a quarter each! Aaaah! In this town, that does not happen, ever.) and I started on a blue/yellow/black floral version of this pattern for my work's late-holiday party that I ended up not a) finishing and b) attending.  I'm going to do some reworking and finishing on it and hope to have it wearable soon.

     Another thing I've been working on is a project for a employee art show I'm participating in. I've never participated in anything resembling an art show before, so I'm very excited to have my stuff on display. The theme is very loose, and I chose to take a literal path and make a felt, calico and embroidery portrait of Portland historical figure, Dr. James  Hawthorne, whom the street we're locate on is named after.  I was inspired  by a Victorian era Masonic banner I saw at an antique store that I could not afford. Haha!  I'm really happy with how it came out, as I usually don't do "realistic" style art at all, especially faces.  Here's a bad photo if it in my dark room. I'll post better photos of it when it's on display later next week!

 

The blue floral print background was part of a bunch of Civil War print fat quarters I've toted around with me since high school that miraculously didn't get infested with spiders during my time at the last house, and I made the tassel with help from a Martha Stewart pattern. Ha!

Here's the real Dr. Hawthorne, who is buried in my favorite cemetery, Lone Fir!

Pattern Review: 1960s Coat

 Pattern Reivew: S1284 Dress, Vest and Coat

 

Pattern Description: Vintage 1960s Dress, Coat and Vest in two lengths 

 I made view C, the long coat  

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? very very easy. The pattern went together very fast. I wish it was lined, specifically because the fabric I used isn't totally opaque, and frays very easily. I may go back and line it in the future. 

 Fabric Used: It's a shower curtain from Ikea! I don't even have a shower, but I bought it anyway and saved it. When I bought the pattern, I thought it might work, but wasn't sure there'd be enough yardage in the curtain, but there was!  

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: Made as the pattern was printed. Next time I would line it, and probably cut it in the petite lengths, since I had always have to take a lot off the bottom. 

The whole thing only took about five hours split over two days, although it probably took closer to three and a half working hours if I hadn't been dicking around on the internet at the same time. I started it after I got home from work and only stopped because I was worried my machine was too loud for my housemates. 

 I'm so pleased with how it came out! I'm going to eventually make all views of the pattern. I've wanted a 1960s dress/coat or vest matching suit like the one below for a long time , but never ever find them in my size for prices I can afford.

Geoffrey Beene Suite, Met Museum

 Geoffrey Beene Suite, Met Museum

2014 in Brief

Everybody and their dog has been making 2014 year-in-review posts, but I'm not super into that, as the first half of the year up through about August was a shitfest for me personally, and the last half was  a shitfest for the rest of the world. I don't want to be Debbie Downer, so I'll say that for the past few months, some stuff happened, namely:


I won an ugly Christmas sweater competition with this beauty:

Made new friends:

rewatched Band of Brothers (twice)

x

reread Band of Brothers (twice)

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Rented several Band of Brothers related books from work (help)

x

bought a Costco rotisserie chicken



So anyway, that's about all that's been going on. I'm really hoping to get back into blogging more regularly, as well as getting more sewing done. I'm still mourning the loss of my fabrics to the spiders, which puts a significant hitch in any sewing plans.  I've gotten some cuts of fabrics as gifts in recent months, so I need to look through my patterns and see what I can use them for!