Pitcher's Duel

So very excited for Lincecum - Halladay tonight. I scheduled my experiments just so I could be home in time to watch. I just hope Lincecum's blister doesn't affect him.

Of course, it's one of those matchups that can never live up to the hype. Witness Pedro-Roger in the ALCS where Roger left in the third. Not that I mindthe Rocket getting lit up against the Sox. So I guess if it's not meant to be a pitcher's duel tonight, I'll just root for Halladay to be the one getting lit up.

It's hard rooting for the Giants in the postseason. I mean, it's easy, of the teams left, I want them to win, but it feels so weird for the team I'm pulling for to not be the Sox. And I don't really know the Giants players all that well, so I'm constantly asking "who's that guy?" The whole not wearing names on the jersey is all well and good for those who know the players, but not so much for me. Sigh.

At any rate, get out there Timmy and earn yourself a nice post-game smoke. You're back in Cali now, all you can get is a ticket.

Corset Dilemmata*

I tried on the corset muslin for the wedding dress for the first time in months, after I lost about 10 lbs. Now it's a wee bit too big, and I'm not quire sure what to do. When it's tied to the appropriate tightness, the V in the back is totally gone. What I want is something more like the green lines, to mirror the V in the front and just in general go with the whole geometric whatnot.

So do I redo the corset pattern yet again? That sounds like a giant pain, and then what happens if I gain the weight back? Or I can always just tie it looser, which would be good for the breathing and all. The front at the cleavage is a bit too loose then though - maybe I can add an elastic bra-strap type thing?

I am thinking of having the corset and the ombre overlay not actually tie together. This way, I can make the corset, make sure it fits, tie it as tightly as needed, and not pull at the silk overlay. I'm not sure if I'll use the metal grommets or fabric loops on the silk. If I do use grommets, it's probably better to not have the grommets all on top of each other, just for bulk. So maybe I keep the fit as is.

The other question is what fabric to use. For a shaping corset, you want a nice stiff fabric, so it shapes you. Now, I'm pretty happy with my shape, and prefer to be able to breathe over being shaped. I bought some silk taffeta remnants from Thai Silks that I was planning to use, but now I'm thinking those might not be so breathable.** So maybe I just use some Habotai silk? It will definitely breathe, and feel really nice on the skin. Maybe a couple layers for strength? Then I can also encase the bones fully. I just need to remember to starch the silk for body while I'm working with it, and probably pre-wash so it can get the starch rinsed out after. Can I wash it with the bones in? Will spiral steel boning rust or something?


* I do love a word with a fun plural.

** Both in terms of air getting through the fabric and in terms of me being able to breathe.

Herve Leroux/Leger

Normally, the clothes on American's Next Top Model are fun but so very unwearable. The Herve Leroux* dresses from the runway challenge from last week were an exception. Not all were quite wearable for someone without a model's body, but they were all gorgeous, and I think I can take inspiration from them.

I read up a little on him while I was investigating why he changed his name. Apparently, his dresses are all very body shaping - think really pretty spanx. So I don't think that's part of what I'll be emulating. Still, the way he uses color is very like what I'm doing for the wedding dress**, so obviously I love it.

One lesson I have learned though - if I make a dress based on the one pictured here, I will not do it in gray, unless I get some better dyes. Dying shades of gray and having them all keep the same hue is incredibly difficult. I used RIT dye, because it's easy to go buy at Joann, and I mixed up a pretty good silver/gray color. But, when I make it more concentrated, it's too red, and at weaker concentrations, too blue and even too yellow when it's really light. Much easier to stick with a single color like blue. Blue is also more forgiving because different hues of blue look decent together.

More Herve whoever pictures on my tumblr, gardenoffenway.tumblr.com. This is the first time in a while I've been so inspired by so many things from the same designer:)


* Formerly Herve Leger, but he apparently sold off the rights to his own name. Oops.

** Apparently that effect is called "ombre." Now I can be all sophisticated when I describe the design of the wedding dress!

Adventures with Lining

I made Butterick 4789 in a simple red knit that was a little too shear and drapey. You can see the outline of bra straps in the back, which I'm never a fan of, and you can actually see them if the light is right. The shirt is low cut enough that a camisole underneath shows, and the twist pattern is busy enough without adding another fabric to the look. So, I decided to attempt a lining. I didn't want to just duplicate the twist pattern in the lining because that'd be a little bulky, so I basically guessed at the shape I needed for the front pieces and fixed it up on the dress form. I suppose you could call this my first attempt at draping. It doesn't look faboo, but it's a lining, so who really cares? I hand stitched the lining to the armhole and back neckline. My hand stitches always end up looking a bit lumpy, but again, it's a lining, so whatever. It worked well enough that I didn't take any pictures from the outside. I wanted to wear it so quickly that it's now in the laundry:)

Winter Swimwear

The fiance and I go to Hawaii with his family every winter, so the season when I need a new swimsuit is winter, not summer. So I decided to attempt to make a few coordinating tops and bottoms. If I make them out of the same combination of colors, I should be able to mix and match.

I made the pattern on the right (the view you can't see) way back when and it went ok but not great. It's a string bikini top and a normal panty bottom. It didn't fit great (not shocking, since apparently I hadn't adjusted at that time to the fact that pattern sizes run way small, and I made a 10), and the strings for the bikini were a giant pain. Unfortunately, it means that the pattern I bought is a 10, so I'm going to have to learn how to size it up to a 12 or a 14.

I think I'll start with the center top of the right pattern, maybe trying to apply that waistband to a boy-cut short. Burgundy and pink for the bottom, then black with a burgundy center for the top. Luckily, all the pattern use a fraction of the width of the fabric, so I should be able to cut a number of different pieces.

Now to finish at least one old project before I start on another!

Let's Try This Again

I have a tendency to start a blog, and then get distracted by another topic which is inappropriate to that blog, so I start another, and none of them get more than 5-6 posts long. Witness here. So I'm just going to post whenever about whatever I happen to want to talk about - keep it themeless. Let's see if I can actually maintain a blog this time!

Now the season begins

It hadn't really felt like baseball season yet. Sure, there were games everyday, but I haven't been staying late at school or coming home early so I don't miss part of the game during my commute. But now, it really feels like baseball season.

I skipped out of a study group to come home and watch the game. To some degree, I'd accepted if they lost today - after all, Pettitte was pitching, and we're facing scrubs for the rest of the series. So when they were down 6-2 in the eighth, I didn't exactly complain when my dear boyfriend got frustrated and wanted to turn it off in the eighth, so we headed out to dinner. As we were parking, I got a voicemail saying “I can’t believe Rivera blew the save!” We caught the 9th at the Old Pro, and the rest, as they say, is history. I watched the bottom of the eighth on my Tivo after, and really, what more can you ask for in a baseball game? It’s no July 24th game (better in my mind than even game 4 of the ALCS, if not quite as meaningful), but it was sweet.

And finally, I’d actually like to thank the nice folks at FOX. Now, normally, I hate them. Even though my dear boyfriend finally has the Extra Innings package, if they have the Sox for a Saturday game, and they decide to show a Kansas City-Tampa Bay game here, we don’t get to watch the our team. But tomorrow, not only are they showing Sox-Yanks here, they’ve also been kind enough to start it at 3:55 EST, so I can roll into the bar at a respectable 12:30 here. Let’s leave the drinking before noon for football season, huh?