Preparation is often just picking things apart: sewing is like cooking

 It's all about preparing your mise en scene

This video is rather hypnotic to me

So is this one

Both creators are in Korea. Coincidence? 

Dollightful is really generous with her preparation and process; she really nailed the anime boy with this one. 

As for me, I'm working on the new winter coat. It's like sewing a car, only I'm using a familiar pattern this time and I left myself instructions 

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2018/02/coat-assembly-instructions.html

The Middle of the Night // Creation Myths and Rituals

Stolen from Seamwork again.

I take my inspiration where I can get it.

I feel compelled to point out that Ms Tharp is a taskmaster who does not suffer much.

I'm putting REG in here because I love him.
Deal with it.

My sewing ritual is more of a unruly thing that i am trying to change.

For the last..... twenty-two years, I have been someone's on-call, in house mother.

The sons have both been out of the house for the last year, but those years have burnt a few habits into me, habits I would like to break.

That is: I can't start doing anything creative until after bedtime. 9pm.
And this is annoying, as I have other hours I could be doing this stuff in.

As much fun I have at the expense of them, I do get inspiration from the Seamwork/Collette emails, and the idea of the sewing ritual reminded me how I have been avoiding my problem with it.

Yes, I'm going to illustrate this with GIFs.
I consider writing stuff down as a form of "I will do what I said I would do", and I can think of no better scold that Dwayne Johnson. Mr Whupass.

A friend of mine and I passed a can of Whoopass (shown below) back and forth as a  "get 'er done" reminder to do what we had said we would. We finally opened it, and it was piss yellow and ghastly as hell. Ice cold would be the only way you'd get er down.

https://bevwire.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/jones-whoopass.jpg I no longer have the can, but you can be sure I looked for it for twenty minutes because this blog isn't getting down slowly enough

My sewing process, my 'creative' process doesn't really start until after dinner and the dishes have been done and the kids are in bed.

But the kids do that somewhere else now. There's no reason for me to wait.

But I still can't get going until about....9pm. Even on days where I have the whole day to work on a project for me, I just can't get the juice going until the sun comes down.
I'm writing this at 10:15pm. and editing it at 6:16pm a day or two later, while I'm cooking dinner.
Or burning it, I should say.

It soaks out pretty well, though. We ate the not-burnt stuff in the middle with a lot of peanut butter and coconut milk mixed in. Tasted just like peanut butter with coconuts.

Luckily I can start earlier if it's a work project. Hemming would not get done in time if it only happened from 10pm - 1am. Same thing for costumes and mending jobs.
And now it's 10:19pm.

I keep a notebook on me at all times. I find no matter what time it is, I can do some good thinking with a pencil in my hand, and I am getting a little better at spreading that creative time over the day. Instead of opening up the phone, I open up the notebook.

I am also trying to make myself keep office hours in the cave. 
Which, like Vegas, is open 24 hours.
It could be some of the hours during the day.
However, I did spend time letting dinner burn making this a pretty GIF of worthiness.

I am not worthy but he is.
This is clearly a work in progress.

 ---------------

Mary had to lean way over to stoop to my level.

I had a wonderful time chatting it up with Mary of PDXSquared at Seattle Frocktails yesterday evening; I was an honorary Stumptowner. Mocktail consumed, runway applauded, and bus stop right outside of event location was for my bus route. Practically perfect night for me.  Mary and I have never met in person before, and it's super nice to put a person to a social media account. 

@Pimpslapped does the twirl

Technical Difficulties Plague Ophelia Overalls

Warning: black corduroy overexposed for details.

They are too big. But yes, I can get my arms in there, with room to spare. 

Yes, this is my Ophelia overalls post.

Yes, I have been dragging my feet on it.

Supplies gathered and ready to go.

 I paid retail, baby.  And yes, I started on them February 20th. Yes, today is March 24.

You know, when you're working on something, and it's really fun and you have a plan and it's going great. Really great.
I changed up the side pockets, I added a zip to the bib pocket, I lined the bib and the straps.

Did I mention the straps were lined? I would not want to forget to mention that.

And that topstitching? Ow, I hurt myself, it was sooo good.

Inspiration overalls that no longer fit me. Leaving with Blondini, who is that thin.

And then one damn thing after another happens? 

And It. Just. Grinds. To. A Halt.

overexposed because black corduroy

It's a couple of things. Not the instructions or the style lines. I'm loving those.

It's the buttons and the straps and the overall width.

Yeah, that's what we got here.

There's nothing wrong with the pattern...

I saved up the hardware and top stitching thread in a project bag. These bags have plastic hooks on the top. This has been hanging on the wall in the cave for months and months. 

The problems started with the fasteners.

I was pretty sure I had used these jeans buttons before, without errors.

You're drunk, button. Go home.

And they just kept failing. The shank of the nail would not go into the hole in the button with moderate hammering. The shank would bend and fail first before it would go in - it preferred folding to going into the hole.The next step was wailing on them with a bigger hammer.
That trick never works.

I had to crank on them with a wrench to finally close them.

Which after awhile means I get irritated and sloppy and I don't take as much care to not make marks on the face of the button.

And then they looked wrong, making the strap bend out strangely.

I had lost my wrench with the leather facing on the teeth (prevents tooth marks on metals).

I needed to make another.

I did make another. You glue/sew on leather over the teeth on the faces. This is how long I've been stalling on finishing this post and these overalls.

I made bound buttonholes to fit the jeans buttons.

They are holes with a lot of stuff around them. I can pick them all out, but there's still that hole. A not insignificant hole.

I removed the jean buttons.

They will not go quietly - I have a pair of end cutting pliers

They are just able to cut the nail off , just below the head. There's enough space in there to do it.

And I did. I replaced them with  sew-on shank buttons and redid the buttonholes as per the directions.

The buttons are huge and when I put the overalls on, the buttons feel like they are on the wrong face. And this is following the directions.

Wonky side opening mismatch before it mysteriously resolved itself

I had a question about how the side closures would work for me (as written, they are a set of tabs with a slider buckle joining them), but decided I would just progress with the project and come up with a solution as I worked towards the problem.

I did not come up with that solution.

I like the look of the straps and buckle, but between the button and snaps at the side opening, and that buckle, there's too much stuff going on the sides that I won't be able to manipulate properly. I won't be able to rethread the buckle closed.

I just don't bend that way very well. 

partial tab or full tab? No, this is not up for a vote

I know that I can come up with a solution that will work for me and retain some part of the style element that I like.  The way that gather makes the top of the pocket bend outwards is very attractive to my eye. I changed the side panels and pockets and retained that look. I'm kind of committed to this feature.

Yes, I am round. I do go in at the middle a bit more than you'd think looking at these, but I'm okay with that. And no, I'm not likely to get better photos of me in these. The photographer is on strike.

They are very comfortable, but they are very very big. I cut them in the size per the envelope, and I've got a couple of cats worth of space leftover in there (I'd say I have five more inches of ease that I need, and I like em baggy). And that's with half the side panels gathered and pinned in place. 

I like things baggy but maybe a few inches less baggy? And the photographer is going back on strike. The look on my face is: "Just take the picture. Why are you so close? Can't you back up or something so I can edit this the way I want it?

I trimmed the leg seams in about an inch or so before cutting the pattern. I CARVED down the legs on the inside seam after I tried them on. They are still very baggy, but proportionate to the piece. I am thinking I want to cuff them to make them come in a little more at the ankle.

I changed the pocket significantly.  I will make another pair of these and illustrate what I did. Or just make another post showing that with drawings. But not today.

I am going to take out several inches in the hip by cutting out that side seam. I don't know that I will get that topstitching down the side again. I will probably retain a vestigial amount of side tab.  Just for grins, maybe with a snap. Probably not. 

Meanwhile, I have been wearing them around the house. I have other work to occupy my brain, and doing other things sometimes shakes loose a good solution.

Or a good enough solution. 

One project completed, one to go

I find this oddly soothing. This post is just an excuse to get this onto the blog. That and I am so tired.

Four more dresses to go.

Son made Eagle Scout

See you next week.

Bias Tape - Whatever gets it done is goodness

While we wait for me to finish the summer job and finish the sewing job and start poking more at the denim hat

(Hey one of my kids came home for the weekend from college to see ME. Of course I went for fries with him at midnight, are you nuts?)

I am reading the latest Seamwork from Collette patterns, and while they are KERAAAZY for Liberty bias tape, you could make your own.

I went over this as part of another post from three years ago, and instead of repeating what I wrote, 

I'm just going to link to it

http://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2013/04/cleaning-up-and-preparing-for-next.html

Yes, that's a pink marker line. No, it's not washable. Sometimes I use a sharpie. I end up cutting it off later when I'm using it. Whatever makes this job happen faster is all good.

I may be lazy, but that means I take steps that count.

I cut the bias pieces, I sew them together so the seams all angle the same way, I don't match up the patterns unless it's a plaid, I cut them about two inches wide, and I iron the seams open. That sets the thread.

And then I roll them up. I don't iron it, because I'm going to be ironing them again later, and I don't use the same seam allowances for everything.

And I'm lazy. And it gets it done.

As I said, whatever gets this job DONE is good.

More samples at the link above.