Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Lil Dress Form (quarter sized mostly)


Long hard day draping and cutting.
But I lie. Well, the photo does.



This is what it really looks like, if I leave the background in.

And then I could show you the pattern I cut this from


I know Vionnet worked on a smaller dress form for draping, but I've found it saves a lot of time, paper and fabric to mess aroun.....CREATE on a smaller form.

I've used the drawing manikin
But you can't pin into it. And it's not very well proportioned. That grey culotte pattern looks like a Hefty bag on a real person


And usually this thing is wearing the little striped pullover shirt pattern I'm STILL poking at, almost a year later......

But today, it's wearing half a pair of culottes. Cause I need a new pair.
Oh, you'll get a pattern, too.....but not that one in the picture. Cause that's just not working.





Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Free peeks at K King Tailoring



I don't have the moola for Kenneth King's Smart Tailoring videos at the moment, but the online order page has some lovely chapter sneaks. And they are whole chapters, not 30 second snips.

That is an entire 3 minutes of smarty goodness

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Sunday school: Love to work, work to live, make your own luck

Actual cloud photo taken by actual person (me) . I left the power line in the corner so you'd know that.
Springtime is marketing job season, and a gal's thoughts turn to seminars and snake oil and those vacation offers that come through on the office fax machine that pretend to be from your HR department. Hell, I AM the HR department, in an office of two. Yes, I work old style too.

Consider this my free lifestyle seminar, just for you, on how to get the lifestyle you want and earn the gluten-free love you deserve on $10 dollars a day.

for only $79. For 99 you get the ukelele

A long time ago, I was an art major. I was a ceramics major. I worked with a lot of talented folks as teachers and fellow students. Of the many, the one who is making a living with his mud isn’t the one who was the most talented, or had the best eye. It was the guy who worked at it. He did the ten thousand hours before Gladwell thought of it.

His work is a little boring to look at, a little run of the mill. It is wonderful in the hand, well balanced and graceful. My guess is that he’s acquired one good design idea a decade, and lost the ones that didn’t work. He is a master potter now. 35 years later. 

35 years of every day.

The problem with being self employed is the "every day" aspect; you are always at work. Making boundaries between work and home (note I did not say leisure) is virtually impossible now in the 24/7 international sales cycle. When the client is in Brisbane or London (and she is), you are up to Skype. Do I love that? No, especially when the other parent is also on a different crazy cycle. Who gets up with the kids in the morning? Why is the web guy living in Portugal? What time is it in Portugal? (I recommend World Clock. Lives on my task bar) Why did my sysop do that? Where is the sysop? Vancouver? Which one? Property taxes coming up. Baby needs a new pair of shoes; where can I buy shoes using bitcoin? And he’d like to borrow the car.
It’s always been all work. Those folks who put on those seminars about how to have the lifestyle you deserve -  I’ve been one of them - they know what a profitable pack of lies that is. Selling bullshit is hard work; it should pay well. 

If you are lucky, you will have work. And if you love to work, you are lucky. But you can make that luck for yourself if you can work at loving the person you see in your mirror every day. You should value the work that person does everyday. 
But more importantly, you should put your love into it. I think you will find that love transforms the work you do.

Hey, and if you suck at it, you should do something else. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This post is due to reading these articles, which are fine and interesting.  I didn't say I agreed with them, I said they were interesting. And I love footnotes.



Saturday, May 9, 2015

High Stylin Road Trip

I know, I went a month ago, but I've been super busy updating patterns and sewing costume stuff, so here is my backhanded view of High Style, at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco
I went with my sister, who provided the press tix for the Ballet, and I was to buy the High Style tickets. Which I did, and then she got sick while we were there.

She stayed in the hotel, I took the Muni across town.


Lincoln Park is a crowded thirty minute bus from Union Square


And it has a public golf course


And this. Spreckels money. Thanks sugar barons!
I haven't been to the LofH since ...1978. An amazing collection of Rodin, proving that early money is like yeast, at least if you're hoping to collect the entirety of a man's artistic output. 

But let's go see some clothes!

Okay, for those of you with large lace tablecloths, this is the stuff for you.


Finish the awkward ends with ribbon and tassels! Voila!



I need to explore using tassels to keep things lined up.


So very Fluevogian


I am making this hat in the autumn, so help me





This Vionnet is a mess on the mannequin both here and in the catalog that goes with. The sleeve is going to drive me crazy later this year. 




Vionnet and Gres conversing


Adrian and James both have central horizontal tucks for shaping

La Sirene!




The open half is facing the wall






More open sides facing the wall. Booooooo! What was the point?


Redone zipper pucker? It was very prominent
At least we got the video for the structure of this dress. The photos I have seen of the Charles James show have a lot more info on how things were made, but this is supposed to be the overview of the Costume collection, not the James show.

Poo.


I was there just in front of a bus load of very stylin' ladies



Once a ceramics major...





...Always a ceramics major



Nice to be reminded that many folks made paintings of the tower under construction, including Seurat



I just loved the frame







This is very unflattering, but it is proof that yes, I do not hate the ballet. And we got there absurdly early.


And our press seats were in row M for Ratmansky's Shostakovich program. I love that drapery.




I know, some people truly dislike this place, but I always have the best time. I think it has to do with my upbringing, as it always turns out I know someone who works the floor. I guess I grew up with grumpy ladies who moved from Seattle to San Francisco.


One more stop, third floor. This photo is mostly for reordering reference.



Apple store first day of orders for some timepiece...







And of course I went to kick back and look at some costumes in a movie....