Late Night Infomercials

Recently during late night infomercials I've been catching this one product called the Yudu. It's a do-it-yourself-at-home screen printing machine. It has everything. I mean everything. The machine does everything you would ever need for a simple screen printing job. It reminds me of a PCS (printer/copier/scanner). I can see its appeal. Who hasn't wanted to screen print a few shirts? Heck, I've wanted to screen print for as long as I've been crafty and I've recently taken a screen printing class just to squelch the obsession. And it looks simple and easy to use. But I'm not sure I'm ready to fork over $300 just yet. I think I'm going to stick to my ghetto ways for a little longer. But I have to say those infomercials are good. I've come close to falling for their siren's call.

Wired Frog Buttons, First Attempts

I found pictures of my first attempts at the wired frog buttons. I don't make them this way anymore, but it's fun to look back.

I made a photocopy of actual wired frog buttons and used them as a template. I placed pins in the areas where I wanted to bend or shape.


Now instead of a template I just free form them with my hands and some pliers. Ah the joys of trail and error. I'm pretty sure I'll figure out a better faster method next time.

Screen Printing 101

One of my projects from my summer screen printing class.

My projects were simplistic but I was aiming for understanding rather than trying to print my own art work like the other students. It also helps that I don't have my own artwork and have no drawing talent, which I need to work on. I only say that it helped, because some students got so caught up in their art they didn't have time to finish their projects. So their art became a hindrance.

I've only taken pictures of one project so far. I'll have to dig out the other ones.

This is one of my later projects. Art was done by a friend who requested this shirt.


Shirt: Koalas are 8's because they're telepathic and can control the weather

What's the meaning behind the shirt. I don't have first hand knowledge, but it's supposedly based off of a movie called The Nines with Ryan Reynolds, who my friend is a huge fan of, hence why this shirt was made. If you want to know about the meaning click on the link, I don't know if I can properly explain it since I've never seen the movie.

Qi Pao II

Here are the pictures of the qi pao I made for Sailor Venus. Her mom said that it was a nice dress but the colors are too dark. Her mom's right, I have no idea why Sailor Venus didn't want a gaudy and loud dress that would over power the brides wedding gown.

Wired Frog Buttons

A more in depth discussion on wired frog buttons. For a while now I've been trying to make my own version of these buttons. I've actually tried my hand several times at it, if you all remember Grip N Flip's Winter Formal Dress last year. I mean other than self torture why not buy the button. Well other than my masochistic tendencies, I do have legitimate reasons for trying to make my own.

Reasons for Making Wired Frog Buttons:

1. Color - No explanation needed.
   
2. Material - When I do find one in a matching color the cheap polyester just doesn't match the nice silk I bought.
3. Design - I would like to have the button match my fabric motif.
   
4. Originality - I know that no one in the world will have the same buttons as the dresses I produce. I can't make two buttons the same anyways, my skill level is still lacking.

I think this time I produced a much better button. There are still a few kinks I need to work out. But overall I'm satisfied with it's outcome. Here is a better picture of the button on the dress.


Through all that trail and error, meticulous prototyping, and the agony of failures, I proudly presented this button to my father. And his response was, "why didn't you buy a book?" And he claims to have seen one before. In a 30 second conversation with my father, he has the ability to make me want to gouge my eyes out in frustration. I might be a bit crazy, but if there was a book out there that would have taught me how to make these buttons I would have bought it, I don't enjoy torturing myself. But the twist is that after some thought he finishes with, "oh maybe you couldn't find these books because I think I saw them in Chinese." My father is an emotional roller coaster. If anyone out there wants to develop the urge gouge their eyes out in frustration, I will gladly send my father over for a visit.

Thailand T-shirts and Screen Printing

Last year in May I traveled to Thailand for a friend's wedding. One of the souvenirs I brought home were t-shirts made by local artists at Chatuchak Market Bangkok (aka Weekend Market). It was stuffy and a bit claustrophobic but really fun.


I was drawn to the artwork. I love the whimsical and off beat nature of the pieces that have a dash of steam punk surrealism mixed in. And I'm all for supporting local artist.








If you all haven't noticed I've been interested in screen printing for a while now. If the Tako Shirt and all those links at the side didn't give you that indication.

So after all these ghetto screen printing trails and tribulations, I decided to take a Textile Screen Printing Class over the summer. It was a short intense 4 week class, but I had a lot of fun. I'll have to pull them out of the garage and take pictures of them.

MY FINGER!!

Two weeks ago I was at a baby shower chatting with some friends. It turned to Project Runway, and one of them asked if I've ever sewed my finger, like some of the contestants have on the show. I thought about it and answered, "no matter how much pressure I'm under or if I'm in a rush I've never ever sewn my finger." And then I think I go on about how that would never EVER happen to me. So if any of you know me well enough, you can guess what happens to me a 1 week after this conversation.


That's right I sewed my finger on my sewing machine for the first time in my life.

Summer Dress Alterations

I've been randomly doing alterations for Sailor Venus. She doesn't really like me to reference her as such but as a good friend I feel that it is my place to go against her wishes.

This knit dress was one of such alterations. What she liked about the dress was the floral embroidery at the chest and the decorative knit hem.

You can't tell because my dressfrom is skinny, so most everything looks good on her. But in reality this dress is shapeless and baggy. It's unflattering and ill-fitting on Sailor Venus, to the point of ugly. But she had gotten this dress for free, don't ask, and I for one hate to waste.





I raised the neckline and changed it to a halter top. I also raised the waistline to an empire waist so that it wouldn't look so baggy. I also shortened the hem, since Sailor Venus looks better in knee length dresses as opposed to ankle length.

I'm not sure if it's readily apparent how much better it looks, since the pictures are yet again on my dressfrom, but on Sailor Venus it's no longer a relic of unflattering bagginess. Now it's cute and sweet summer dress.

Nerdy Art

I'm a pack rat. I have a hard time throwing things away. I always see potential in an object, I just need the proper time, motivation, or inspiration to follow through. I'm pretty sure all pack rats say that same line. But it also falls under waste. I don't want to feel like I'm wasting or creating excess trash for a landfill. So that is the excuse I have for rescuing this out of the rubbish bin at work last week.

It's a little roughed up in the center. Looks like something decorative used to be attached. I thought it would be fun to do something decorative to distract from the slight blemish. I wanted try string art in the center. It's simple and full of math type fun. I saw some fun and intricate patterns, but I thought I should keep it simple on my first attempt.

It's a rough draft of what I'm planning. I might take it all out and change the string color. I was thinking of adding black to the mix. I haven't really decided what I like best.

By the way, I apologize for the bad fuzzy pictures. I took it on my camera phone.

Hemming Jeans

This may sound strange but I don't like to do any projects for myself. I've been told that I'm quite odd and peculiar. I'm sure there are people out there like me, but all the people I know, who do sew, like to make clothes for themselves or at least they don't disdain it like I do. I have no desire whatsoever to EVER sew for myself. If I had to sew clothes for myself I might never have the desire to actually sew. There are several legitimate reasons for this.

Reasons:

1. I can be anal retentive about my sewing. I cringe when I look at old projects. When someone is wearing one of my projects I sit there and try to fix the mistakes in my mind or I sit there hating it the whole time for the mistakes that only I can see. Can you imagine what I would be like wearing my own projects. I'd be miserable and self-conscious the whole day.
2. Fitting yourself is a pain in the behind. It can be one of the most frustrating and discouraging aspects of sewing for yourself. It's so much easier to see the mistakes when you don't have to wear the garment. And most people don't have a bevy of competent sewers at their disposal. Fortunately I do. Unfortunately, most of them aren't on call because when the whim strikes me, it needs to be done immediately before it flits away.
3. It's really hard to be so intimate with your own body measurements. Do I even have to explain this to anyone?

So imagine my surprise when I actually wanted to hem my own jeans tonight, and that I actually completed the task. This pair jeans I've owned for a little under a year now. It's beyond long for me. I've hemmed many a pair of pants for other people and never had the desire the fix mine, even though they're so ripped at the hem it looks like a small animal attacked it. In addition to hemming my jeans I also patched two other pants that had holes in places that aren't proper for the polite company. Just because they had holes didn't stop me from wearing them and I don't know any polite company anyways. So maybe this is a move in a the right direction. First my own alternations, next I might want to sew something for myself.

Multiplying Penguins

I just realized that they've multiplied. For those of you who've never noticed, my side bar has penguins you can play with. I started out with two: Bucket and Pail. But I just noticed that there are FIVE of them in there. FIVE!!!!!! What happened?!?!? Do they multiply? I thought they were both boys!! Where did these other penguins come from? Do I even want to know?

Qi Pao

I just finished a project this week for Sailor Venus. She needed a Chinese qi pao for a wedding. It wasn't a Chinese wedding, in fact it was completely opposite. The wedding was culturally diverse and the bride asked guests to come dressed in the clothing of their culture.

I don't have pictures because we were in a rush, but I'll give you some fun tidbits.

Here is the fabric I choose. The right side and it's reverse is equally beautiful. I had a hard time choosing, but I finally decided on the gray side with black flowers. Since she was going to a wedding I didn't want her to go in black. I also really liked the design since it isn't overtly Asian even if the design is a qi pao. Nor was the fabric shimmery and glittery which was one of Sailor Venus' requirements. I guess she didn't want to be the gaudy Asian with a fully sequin dress. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to be gaudy, I guess there's no accounting for taste.



Sailor Venus didn't have time to do a fitting so I only had one chance to get this dress right. It's my first time taking measurements of a person and taking it to a pattern. For class, we usually fit a dressfrom and whoever fit the dress would model it. But then how did I fit Grip N Flip in her dresses you ask. She is dressfrom size so I don't have to do major measurements or alternations to fit her in any of my patterns.

It was exciting and scary to do it this way. Of course I can always take things or let things out. But she was flying out right away and I wouldn't have much time. It would be easier if I was able to fit her perfectly the first time.

It was a slow and tedious process, since I don't have very much experience. But the good news is that it fit her EXACTLY. It was very flattering and extremely tight. She said that it's corset like. But who needs to breathe when you look beautiful. And if you know me, you'll know how ironic that phrase is coming from me.

I also got to try my hand at Chinese Frog Buttons again. I don't know if they're considered Frog Buttons, feel free to correct me. I had a better idea of what I needed to do this time around. It also helped that I wasn't using a limpy wimpy fabric like silk. If you don't know what I'm taking about please refer to Chinese Empire Gown.

Parts of the button design are taken from several other buttons that I admire and other parts of it were free handed, letting the button tell me where it wanted to go. I'm thinking of making some themed buttons, for example clouds, butterflies, flowers, or even animals. I'll have to see where the wind of inspiration takes before I say anything else.

I have a lot of fabric left over. I bought extra just in case, but I have more than I anticipated. I bought 3 yards but I only used 1 1/2 yards. I guess it also helps that the fabric is 60" wide, More bang for my buck. I'm thinking of making a boustie with the left overs using both sides of the fabric. But yet again I better let the wind of inspiration take me there before I make any plans.

Promised Pictures You Ask

So a while ago I promised to post pictures of my projects. Well my computer blew up. Not literally but it wouldn't turn on. I think the motherboard is fried. And for some reason this past year I stopped being super paranoid about my computer and data lose, hence I didn't back up any of my data. I used to back up my data monthly of not weekly (and at my most paranoid everyday).

So it's been down for a few months and I had to purchase a laptop. I'm not sure if I can still recover any for my files from the old hard drive. I'm still sort of in denial, I want to pretend that it's possible to recover everything, but I'm too scared to find out the truth. More or less I'm in a state of limbo on this matter.

Luckily some of my projects involve Grip N Flip, so she has pictures at least. But as for everything else, I have my fingers crossed and awaiting my heart and mind to be ready for the worst case scenario.

Leo Pillows in Mass Production

It's that time again for LEO projects. This time I had to make 16 mini pillows, roughly 8" diameter, for the graduating seniors. I've never had to sew in such mass quantities before. I realize I'm being overly dramatic here, but it's the truth.


My production line sewing is quite impressive. It was tedious towards the end, which would explain why some of the faces became off center.


They're partially stuffed but still not complete yet.

Spoon has the rest of the pictures. I'll upload them whenever she gives them to me.

Chinese Empire Gown, o how I LOATHE thee

Some would think loathe is a strong word for something like a dress, but I think it honestly describes how I felt about this dress through all of it's construction. What, you may ask, would inspire such a passionate declaration? The answer is silk charmeuse. Silk charmeuse is airy and light, but slippery and challenging to work with, especially as one of my first project in silk. But unfortunately that was the whole point of my couture sewing class.

As always I hate having to sew something that won't be worn. Seems like such a waste in resources, even if it is for my education. Lucky for me and for her, Grip N Flip needed a winter formal dress. And strangely enough I dreamt of a dress even before this class, so I already had a design prepared for this project. In retrospect, having such a vivid design in mind made it more difficult for me to compromise on many design aspects of this dress.

My design concept is east meets west. A Chinese style spencer jacket with a empire waisted gown. We both decided on purple/lavender for the color theme.


































The Chinese style spencer jacket is a separate piece then the dress, giving her the option of wearing it to less formal occasions or for The Lunar New Year. The silk charmeuse is overlain by several layers of organza to give it a ethereal feel. The back flares out almost like a butterfly.

I actually didn't finish the dress on time and was still working on it the day of. And at the last minute the zipper broke and I had to sew her into the dress (seen below). At first we were pretty stressed but then realized how funny it was and couldn't stop laughing as I started to sew her in. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath at times. It was pretty surreal, even thinking back on it.

On the picture below is a close up of the spencer jacket. The double layer bias binding was extremely difficult to do in silk charmeuse. But I didn't have a choice, since I couldn't find pre-made bias binding in a matching color. And to add insult to injury, the double layers, required double the work, so that I could infuse both a purple and a silvery lavender color at the edge. It's very subtle and hard to see in this picture, but worth the agony.

And what took more time and energy than I had properly allotted for was the hand made chinese button. If you think it was hard finding bias binding in a color to match my spencer jacket then the button was simply out of the question. I should have known this would be a challenge since Chinese people do not favor purple/lavender in their traditional brocade fabrics, hence the accessories were equally difficult to obtain. I have to say, my color choice was probably the main culprit to all of my trails and tribulations. But that is what made me so adamant about this color, so I guess I can't complain. Back to the chinese button, it was clear that I wouldn't find a button in matching colors so my only choice was to make one. I couldn't find any books or internet sources to help me (If anyone out there does have information on this topic I'm still interested). I ended up buying some cheap chinese buttons and dissecting them to figure out how they were constructed. As you can see I'm still perfecting the technique. But for a first try, I think they turned out quite well.


And to round everything out, a pair of CONVERSE. To back up every pretty dress should be a pair of converse.

Though this dress is not an accurate depiction of the dress from my dream, to actually be inspired and to follow trough with something so fanciful, has it's own merits.

This dress was completed in January and for months I still loathed it. But recently I had to pull it out for some reason or another, and upon looking at it again with some distance, I found myself reluctantly proud and amazed at my own progress.

Pictures are coming . . . . . I promise

I know I still don't have any pictures of my projects. I blame it on summer school. I took a screen printing class and it was detrimental to any and/or all of my blogging abilities. But I have finally received the pictures to some of my projects so the promise of pictures is not a lie.

Garage a Storage of Mess

So I've been trying to clean and get the garage organized as my primary work area for a few years now. I always end up thwarted by projects, school work, or mother nature. Here are some pictures of my cleaning attempts in January during winter break.

Some of the junk sitting in front of my garage.

What it looks like inside.

So much stuff so little space!!!

It's still a total mess. But at least I'm moving in the right direction. I lost momentum due to the heavy rains we were getting in January. It was really frustrating.

My mom's second hand sewing machine from who knows when.
I think it's older than me!!

Here is this golden lion that stares at me as I sew.
It's sort of ugly but it's been there as long as I can remember so I guess it's gonna stay staring at me.

Since then I've had my dad build me a 4' x 8' cutting table. But it's even messier than before, since I've been working on projects in there, regardless of the mess. It's a tight squeeze but at least everything is in one place and I don't have to run between the house and the garage to cut, press, and then sew.

I found a solder. Dad says he'll teach me how to use it.
But how hard can it be. <-- famous last words

Now I only need to truly clean and organize to get it to be the perfect sewing studio. Well except for the cold . . .

Fashion Incubator

I had a presentation due for my finals in addition to all that sewing we did throughout the semester. I wasn't thrilled to do it but school is school. In the midst of all my research I stumble upon this site:

http://www.fashion-incubator.com/

Some of my classmates said they already knew about it but Thursday was the first time I've ever seen it. It's run by a pattern-maker who gives industry tips on sewing, pattern drafting, and standard industry procedure. It's fascinating. It was so distracting, I almost didn't finish my project. Some of the things I've already learned in class but it's nice to hear it really is used in industry. I've already read through several of her tutorials. She's also written a book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing by Kathleen Fasanella which I want to get now.

If any of you already know about this site, I'm sad that you didn't share with me earlier!!!

I'm still alive . . . sort of

Finals were yesterday and I finally turned in my last project. I'm too tired to even do a dance of joy. I think this school year has been a little hellish for me. With my job hours (graveyard) mixed with school, I was a lacking in every department. I'm usually a better student, but this year has been tough. I keep questioning if that good student in me still existed. I was unmotivated and didn't want to sew most of the time.

Hopefully, over the summer I will have time to get myself straightened out and ready to go for the Fall semester.

Now the question is what have I been up to all semester.

I took two classes this semester, the Advanced Sewing class and Flat Pattern Drafting class.

In the Advanced Sewing class we had to sew a cocktail dress and a soft tailored women's jacket. Where are the pictures you ask? I don't have any yet, but I promise to post them when I do get them

For the cocktail dress we were given creative freedom to do what we liked as long as it fit into the category "cocktail dress". I made mine into Grip N Flip's Prom dress. I even did her hair. It's a surprised even me that it turned out so beautifully. Her make-up . . was another story. Someone better versed in arts of womenhood had to help her with that. I don't mean her mom either, she's also a hopeless case.

As for the women's jacket I turned it in yesterday and won't get it back till the middle of summer or next semester. Right at this moment I never want to see or hear about welt pockets, bound button holes, fully lined, soft tailored jackets again!! If you don't know any of these terms I will explain them in my jacket post when I do get it back.

Flat Pattern Drafting Class, for those of you who don't know what that is, there are two ways to create patterns for clothing; draping and flat drafting. Draping on a form, which I took last semester, is where you place cloth on a dressform and manipulate the fabric to the style you want to create. Flat pattern drafting is where you take measurements of the form and convert it to lines on paper and hopefully a correct pattern. I'm not sure if I can explain it any more simply than that. I only had to sew up one dress for Flat Pattern Drafting. It was my final and it was a disaster. This I can get pictures of but I'm so despondent with it right now I don't want to look. Your thinking how bad can it be . . . . think of the worse case scenario and multiply by 20. But I promise to post it sometime this summer. Just for the sake of showing my fashion progression.

I hope you all enjoyed just a wordy update with no pictures.

Pushing Daisies Dandelion

Pushing Daisies is an awesome show. Though I didn't always have time to watch it, I've been a huge Brian Fuller fan since Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls. I'm not going to go off babbling about the shows, but I could.

Fork, who hasn't made an appearance on my blog for a while now, made a request from on of the episodes. Let's see if any of you recognize this picture.


Give up? This is the "Dummy" episode where they introduce a car that runs on dandelions. I was to recreate one of the dandelions she's holding.


Supplies:

• paint
• glue
• fishing line
• dowels
• skew
• fake leaves
• styrofoam ball
  

You paint your styrofoam ball and skews. Now comes the hard part. You wind the fishing line 50xs around a cardboard to your desired length and then glue onto the skews. You cut the other end, stab it into the styrofoam ball. Rinse and repeat until you have the dandelion of your dreams.

Work the bald spot!!!

At this point your hands are cramping and stinging from pain, so you think, a partially bald dandelion isn't so bad looking. It's pretty cool. But try and convince that Slave Driver Fork of that concept. SLAVE DRIVER!!! But I was older, so he was forced to help me with production. It was a lot easier with two people.

Tah-dah

It looks a little fuller in real life. The fishing line and flash just don't go well together.

I was told later that his girlfriend really loved it!!!