A few months ago, Tom and I decided to designate February as our drive-free month. Technically we drove once this month for a family function in Santa Cruz, but I looked at our Zipcar statement, and it said that we went 30 days between rentals, so I'm calling that our drive-free month. Yay for not having to drive... especially when gas at the nearest station is $4.65/gal.
I'm happy to live in a place where alternate means of transportation is so easy. I love not having the responsibility of owning/maintaining a car, paying for insurance or gas (zipcar covers both), finding parking, and all that headache. Plus we rent out our parking spot, so that usually covers our transportation costs of public transit, zipcar, and taxis. Yay for city life!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 09, 2012
At your request, Elns.
I got the hint (or, straight up, "Dude, you gotta blog.") from Elns that I don't blog enough. Doesn't reading other people's blogs count? See, the thing is, I feel like I blog all the time, but in reality, it's only in my head and I don't actually write it down. I won't tell you how many times I looked at my blog and thought, "Huh. Now where is that post about those delicious Bi-Rite cara cara oranges? Oh wait, I only thought about blogging it and instead noshed on chocolate and washed it down with a glass of Germain-Robin brandy and savored my snobbery." And also, I have too many blogs that I can't seem to manage. Excuses, excuses...
And my sewing saga continues. I went to Britex fabrics yesterday and practically wrapped myself in each bolt of fabric. A nice staff member confided to me that she does all she can to restrain herself from doing the same thing. Britex has the most beautiful collection of designer fabrics you can think of. When you get designer clothing, these are the fabrics they use. I saw a beautiful ombre hand dip-dyed silk that would be perfect for my epic dress. Unfortunately the $50/yard price tag was a little steep for me, especially for someone who is out of practice with sewing. But man, that would be one sweet dress (if only I could sew it right!).
Today I went to the thrift store and bought a bedsheet to use as practice material. Then went back to the discount fabric store I went to a couple weeks ago to pick up some sewing notions. I saw the bolt of rayon fabric that I used on my sample dress, and to my surprise the streaked dye was already there! It was part of the design. Weird. I don't know how I missed that the first time around. It does not make it look any better knowing the streaky pattern was intentional.
Sometimes I think I'm wasting my time with sewing. I'm going to end up spending more on making a dress than if I had just bought one. Of course, there's the satisfaction of knowing that I made it myself, and that it's something that can't be purchased at a store (don't ya just hate when you spot someone wearing the same thing as you?). But there's a reason why we pay for clothing... because lots of us suck at designing or sewing and/or we don't have the time. Ah, but with any kind of crafting, it's mostly in the process, right? I mean, I'm not raising my own silkworms and spinning their cocoons into thread and weaving them into fabric. Nor am I dying the fabric (though the thought has crossed my mind). There is a limit on how DIY I'm gonna be. Maybe if I had a hired staff and multiple homes and acres of land like Martha Stewart, then I could be like her, anal retentive and all.
Much like my blog, in my mind my sewing creations are absolutely lovely and real. In actuality, it's sloppy, has that hand-made look (and not in a good way), and a bit disappointing. But like so many crafters, we don't value our time so when all is said and done we say, "A $100 dress that I made for only $10... and it only took 50 hours!"
And my sewing saga continues. I went to Britex fabrics yesterday and practically wrapped myself in each bolt of fabric. A nice staff member confided to me that she does all she can to restrain herself from doing the same thing. Britex has the most beautiful collection of designer fabrics you can think of. When you get designer clothing, these are the fabrics they use. I saw a beautiful ombre hand dip-dyed silk that would be perfect for my epic dress. Unfortunately the $50/yard price tag was a little steep for me, especially for someone who is out of practice with sewing. But man, that would be one sweet dress (if only I could sew it right!).
Today I went to the thrift store and bought a bedsheet to use as practice material. Then went back to the discount fabric store I went to a couple weeks ago to pick up some sewing notions. I saw the bolt of rayon fabric that I used on my sample dress, and to my surprise the streaked dye was already there! It was part of the design. Weird. I don't know how I missed that the first time around. It does not make it look any better knowing the streaky pattern was intentional.
Sometimes I think I'm wasting my time with sewing. I'm going to end up spending more on making a dress than if I had just bought one. Of course, there's the satisfaction of knowing that I made it myself, and that it's something that can't be purchased at a store (don't ya just hate when you spot someone wearing the same thing as you?). But there's a reason why we pay for clothing... because lots of us suck at designing or sewing and/or we don't have the time. Ah, but with any kind of crafting, it's mostly in the process, right? I mean, I'm not raising my own silkworms and spinning their cocoons into thread and weaving them into fabric. Nor am I dying the fabric (though the thought has crossed my mind). There is a limit on how DIY I'm gonna be. Maybe if I had a hired staff and multiple homes and acres of land like Martha Stewart, then I could be like her, anal retentive and all.
Much like my blog, in my mind my sewing creations are absolutely lovely and real. In actuality, it's sloppy, has that hand-made look (and not in a good way), and a bit disappointing. But like so many crafters, we don't value our time so when all is said and done we say, "A $100 dress that I made for only $10... and it only took 50 hours!"
Friday, February 03, 2012
Sewing
I made the dress. Almost. It's about 80% done, and I am not going to finish it. In fact, I'm probably just gonna throw it away. It turns out that I'm not fond of working with rayon, but I had to learn that the hard way ('cause is there any other way to learn?). When I prewashed the fabric, the dye bled, which made everything streaky and gross. I tell myself, "That's okay, just make the pattern and see if it comes out right, then get some nicer fabric for version 2." When I bought the fabric, I didn't think of how difficult it would be to sew with. The fabric is extremely slippery and is prone to stretching, so I wasn't able to cut the pattern out to the exact size, so the front half ended up being 3 inches wider than the back, and the length was wrong too. And then I couldn't figure out the tension of the sewing machine to get even stitches. FAIL.
I don't even want to keep the remnants since making anything with it is gonna be unpleasant, but I've already promised Yoshi that I'd use it to make her a little blanket for her stuffed animals and dolls. But at least it doesn't really matter if it looks more trapezoidal than rectangular.
I don't even want to keep the remnants since making anything with it is gonna be unpleasant, but I've already promised Yoshi that I'd use it to make her a little blanket for her stuffed animals and dolls. But at least it doesn't really matter if it looks more trapezoidal than rectangular.
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