Month: July 2014

Postcards from Virginia and Virginia

Someone has been having fun cleaning out their stash in preparation for a move and someone else has been enjoying said someone’s largess.
Regular commenter Sara tells me that she and semi-regular commenter Shawn enjoyed how this couple demonstrates the changing nature of fashion and shape.

Indeed, S&S, indeed.

Tree down!

One of those things I managed to capture in a non-dramatic way, but whatever.
See where that tree is on the ground?  Usually that’s a side road.

You can see where the road turns to join Interstate, but is crossed by a tree.

There’s a signpost in the midst of the mess too.

Initially I thought someone made a drunk driving turn and ended up on this side of the street and ran into the tree.  However, additional observation caused me to conclude that someone was traveling in this direction on Interstate, lost control of their car (probably drunk) and veered into the median where the tree and sign were, clobbering it.  Then the sped off through the DMV parking lot, leaving skid marks.
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t remember exactly where the tree had been.

Three sentence movie reviews: An Officer and a Gentleman

Part of the Ruby Oliver Film Festival

From a feminist perspective, this was interesting viewing, as you get the traditional fairy tale* story and also the feminist tale of a woman striving to break glass ceilings.  Of course, the feminist story is merely a subplot, but I’ll take it.  The sex scenes were pretty hot and overall it went in directions I didn’t think it would go, so I was pretty happy with this flick.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

*I knew the ending of this before I started watching it, due to it being referenced fairly often as a “good movie ending”

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1982/officer_and_a_gentleman.html

Random songs of the moment.

Through postcrossing, I found a blog by a photographer who lives in Singapore who also reads YA fiction. We seem to have common interests and so I’ve been checking in.  She has a great feature where she will now and then post the video to a song. I think this is brilliant and plan to do the same thing. I’ll start by copying her. This is a very fun video, both to listen to and watch.  If you like dance numbers or cute 50s dresses, this is for you.

Here is Kathleen’s original post.
http://www.kathleenchere.com/blog/2014/7/7/i-couldve-been-your-girl

Three sentence movie reviews: The African Queen

Part of the Ruby Oliver Film Festival.

This is another one of those classics that’s actually fun, not a grind to sit through.  I loved Hepburn’s embrace of the crazy that her life had become and the freedom it brought her.  It was also both amusing and gripping in places and packed much more of a punch than I expected.

Cost:  free from library
Where watched: at home.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1951/african_queen.html
The tag on that poster (Actually filmed in the splendor and dangers of the Belgian Congo!) reminded me of my favorite part of the credits.  At the very end it said, “Filmed on location in Africa and Sussix England”  You know, because “Africa” is a small place, so we know exactly where you are talking about.
I also this poster for being so bodice-ripper.

Colette Patterns finished Mabel

Okay, fixes made.  Here’s the final result.

And here is an overly large photo (I’m not sure why Blogger didn’t shrink this one) from the back, showing the kick pleat, which was the feature that lured me in.

The outside pictures weren’t showing the texture of the fabric, so I brought the skirt in for a closer shot.  You can see that the pencil effect has disappeared and the front/center panels ratio is off.

I really love the material, though.  And it’s a very comfortable skirt.  The waistband should be much bigger, but I cut it off twice due to making mistakes in construction.
I blame myself, not the pattern for the disaster.  I think my problems were threefold:
1.  My knit wasn’t firm enough, which meant it just kind of “let go and let god” when I cut into it, which is nice for some things, but not so much when  you are supposed to be keeping a shape.
2. I didn’t do a very good job of taking my measurements.  Twice.  Because Mr. Hornaday, my 8th grade shop teacher taught me to always measure twice.
3.  My scissors are incredibly dull and they stretched out the fabric as I was cutting.
So I’ve learned my lesson.  I will attempt this skirt again with a stronger knit and later in the day after I’ve finished my other projects. And licked my wounds.  I’m going to start the next version by cutting and sewing the waistband and TRYING IT ON right then, before I cut out the skirt parts.
As a post script, the first time I wore this out and about, it relaxed even more, and I ended up pinning out the sides, just so it wouldn’t fall down.  I think this material would make a great shapeless wrap-type jacket.  But not a skirt.

Finished Laurel dresses with tiny ruffle variation.

Here it is!  After a year delay, the debut of the Laurel dresses.

The woman who owns and designs Colette Patterns is large of bust and long of leg.  Her designs tend to minimize bust and highlight leg.  As I am small of bust and short of leg, I am always dropping her necklines (sometimes by several inches) and hemming her dresses to a longer length.  
After I finished making these dresses, I remembered that this is not necessarily the most flattering style on me.  I tend to do better with a defined waist.  However, these are incredibly comfortable dresses and I think they will get a lot of use.  I’m glad I spent so much time fitting the shirts, as it translated into a pretty good fit on the dresses.
To see all the posts in the Laurel journey, click here.