Testing! Dreamwidth, sewing, and mirroring.

Let me see how crossposting, photos, and other html bits work on this Dreamwidth thingy. If anybody has any tips on these things feel free to drop me a line. :-)


This is the blouse I made, first time using a Simplicity-type pattern + sewing machine all by myself:


Thumbnails!


( Larger pics! )

It turned out pretty nice, in spite of my inability to ignore flaws in my own work. I'm wearing it out of the house today. OK so far, but lower cut than I realized. Whups.

And I will take the pattern label 'Easy' with a grain of salt next time. But I found some tips on working with silk that may work well with other kinds of slippery fabric. It isn't really the sewing that's difficult, actually, it's the cutting and tracing and pinning stages. And then it was too loose around the bust so I took it in a bit after finishing. And then had to fix the over-long straps. I have some ideas on how to do this differently next time. The sash/bow thingie is vestigal, so I might replace it with a wide ribbon sans tie.

It was time consuming, but I'd rather spend 10 hours making a piece of clothing that fits, in the comfort of my own chantry, than running around the shops for that same timespan trying on clothes that don't fit. It will probably be less time consuming as I get used to the patterns and processes. Also, I did not have proper fabric shears for the blouse, but I have them now.

Apparently the "I am your creator! You must obey me!!!" rant does not work so well on handmade clothing.

Next project will be a vest made in a dark blue moleskin-texture fabric. Yay!

Tho the package of patterns I ordered from Vogue a couple of weeks ago still have not arrived. I think yesterday was the end of 5-7 business days, so I'll try to check on that at lunchtime.

<3 Chrysilla

Putting down the extra baskets.

Wrote this up on Tumblr days ago, because LJ was down and I needed a brain-outlet.

Still trying to figure out and balance my social life, so looking at it doesn’t make me too tired to do anything but watch Neflix. Came to a few conclusions, and some "Oh... duh!" points.

Much as I miss my old friends from college and larp days who still live in NYC, I really don’t do many things in common with them anymore. Except for the handful that write regularly and/or attend the local SF book appreciation gatherings. I used to feel guilty about not seeing them as often, until I realized I wasn’t *in* larp or college anymore, and neither are most of them. I don’t think anybody holds it against me that I’m doing stuff (or feeling yucky every other weekend). And I need to be doing stuff or I get cranky.

For a while I was holding back on teh improv b/c I was trying to keep ties with old friends out of a sense of guilt. But really… not many of my older, non-improv friend do stuff. Or they do stuff, but way out in parts of NYC that are annoying to commute home from late at nite. Or they are busy with work and SO’s and families. It seems like enough to see them on Facebook and Twitter while I’m at work (along with all of my non-NYC friends), or at b'day parties and such. With the eternal open invite to tag along to whatever I’m going to see for free/cheap.

Was also holding back because of some negative experiences in other social circles, where I learned to not trust groups or individuals too readily. Will take a more active stance in getting the hell over that.

Now if I could just stop feeling icky every other weekend, I could go to more of my friends’ birthday parties from all the social circles, between improv days. *grumbles*