New links horray!

So I have found some new links that everyone should enjoy:
1. http://www.cast-on.com - an amazing woman that I enjoy listening to every sunday afternoon
2. http://www.podiobooks.com - interesting books to listen to for free
3. http://www.storynory.com - free kid books to listen to for free
4. http://www.autumnbreezedesigns.com/blog/ - another woman to listen to on sunday afternoons... maybe, i haven't listent to a full podcast yet
5. http://www.rubyfruitradio.com/ - music by women that is good to listen to anytime

I exchanged some stuff at joann's and got a new pattern for a shirt, i will post a picture of the fabric and the pattern sometime this week... I have a lot of homework built up from being sick so not much time to tinker around on the computer.

The Happy Hooker - that's me!

So I found this randomly at Borders last night and was pretty happy to see it too. It has some pretty good patterns for some pretty interesting things... Maybe if they get it at the library I will get it and make something, but as with stitch 'n bitch and stitch 'n bitch nation I'm not sure if there is enough things in this book that I would want to make to warrent me buying the book instead of another one... like the new crewel (which I just finished ordering from albris.com).... and yes I did cave and not wait until next christmas.... so it goes, books my only vice.

Crewel and Cats

So I have been sick and i figured out the cause, it was not the flu it was stress. So you know what my cure was? well it was not medicine that did the trick it was the library! I do love that place. So I had to return some movies I had rented and I went reguardless of the migraine that was plaging me and a good thing too. The longer I was there the less I noticed my headache and by the time I had found four good books, one book on cd, and two movies my headache was miniscule and I felt wonderful. No nausia, no headache, just inspiring thoughts and smiles all around. So two books I found were just how-two's so not much to mention there, but the other two! oh the other two! Cats on Quilts and The New Crewel! What fun books and just the kind of thing that I've been looking for. I've been thinking about designing a quilt and about making some purses with embroidery and crewel is really what I was thinking of I just didn't know the right name! So yep... oh and another thing that helped me out (my headache is gone completely now I think because of this directly) I found out that instead of failing my french test like I was thinking (and I'm serious, I thought I was done with french after this, it was all written too so it was mostly skills and not multiple choice dumb luck) I got a B+! Almost an A! So now I'm going to go to borders and sign up for their prefered customer card and hopefully by next christmas I will have enough money in that christmas savings account to buy the new crewel book! woot!

Etsy bitsy!

So my cousin just happened to send me a link to etsy.com... It's kind of like ebay, but different. There is no auction, but more just buy it now, which is kind of nice because you (the seller) can set the price. The really neat thing is that in order to sell on etsy.com your product has to be handmade/handcrafted or at the very least original hand assembled. I think I may sell stuff that I make from my scraps on there... I do fancy making tote bags and such so it should be fun. The listing price is not too bad and when you sell something the "selling" fee is 3.?%... i think 3.4... which is not half bad.

On another note I have been sick with the flu lately which is why I've been on the internet so much... just so you know... I mean I'm not a slave to my computer or anything. Well my crossiants are done so I'm going to go eat those and hopefully they will go down and stay down okay. And hopefully I will be okay to take my exam tonight... Have a good day internet folks!

Scraps of Fabric

Well, I have come to a point in my life where I have two rubber made containers, one large garbage bag, and various other boxes and baskets full, and I mean full of fabric. Some of the peices are large enough to make clothing items, but so hidious that I would never wear them, and other pieces that are so small, that my best hope is to make costers and then there are all those inbetween pieces that are temptingly large so when I first pick them up I think "oh this would make a cute little button up shirt" and then am dismayed to find that it is really only a half yard... sigh... so I have two questions to pose to the world out there... 1) what would be a good way to store all of these scraps 2) please send some ideas on what you like to do with your scraps.


I have been perusing the internet lately and found some interesting blogs/sites... check them out:
http://www.chiccosas.com/ - a fancy lady with some fancy stuff for sale
http://www.jesshutch.com/update.html - she has an amazing little book of knitting patterns for sale and a free pattern for a bunny!
http://www.woolworks.org/charity.html - a list of knitting for charity projects by state
http://www.magknits.com/ - lots of cute patterns for knitting
http://www.anniemodesitt.com/patterns/#Corset - I want to make this sooooo bad!
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectsheet?pid=e00725&categoryid=32 - I doubt this takes only 2 hours... but still cute.
http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.htm - an interesting site with an amazing mission
http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/ - some really cute stuff... i think there is a pattern somewhere in here for a cute cat too (sewing)
http://www.loobylu.com/ - more cute stuff
http://thewurstgallery.com/index.html - neat stuff to buy
http://srithreads.com/index.php - you should just check this out, it's neat, especially if you are interested in fiber art

oh I am so excited, I am working at encore clothing, inc today... I'm almost done with my training.... I think I will get there early and look around in the yarn shop, maybe knit for a bit. (the yarn store is owned by the same person and they are connected). http://www.encoreclothing.com/ and http://www.theyarnexchange.com/

Chogakpo

So I was looking around the web on some blogs and such and I some how fell onto this site http://srithreads.com/gallery.php/zoom/2 ... it's a gallery that speciallizes in asian textiles... This particular image is really sticking into my mind. I've been looking for something to do with my scraps and I think something like this would be a good place to use them.... although what pratical items could I make? A quilt for my bed? A table cloth? A bag to put my yoga mat into? I am sure that I have enough scrap material to do it all. Although I understand that if I were to make something like this it would not be authentic, but the main point is that this image and little detour into asian textile practices has inspired me to make stuff. I will post pictures of sketches later this week i'm sure.

More skirt stuff

Well, so i found this sew along that is making a skirt and unfortunately the enrollment time has passed and I can't sign up... sigh... oh well. I did buy a pattern anyway and i'm going to make it because as you can see from the past post i was planning on making a skirt. I went and bought the pattern and was so excited that I grabbed the wrong size, oh well, I exchanged it and everything is good now. This is the skirt that I am making (B4025-A). I just happened to have some materal that was handed down to me that will be just perfect! I may have to use interfacing or muslin at the least to reinforce it, but that won't be too hard. The material I have is kind of a black satin that's kind of stiff but very thin. I'm sure it's a poly blend of some sort. It will be a fancy skirt that will look great with the corset I'm going to start making soon... yes I know another corset, but you see I'm addicted, besides, I already have everything I need for it except the time... but that will come eventually. I think I will be able to start and finish the skirt this weekend, I barely work on friday and I have Saturday off, plus no major projects due. Well I do have exams this week so i better go study some french... Parlez-vous français?

Skirt stuff

Well I found one free pattern for a skirt that looks pretty easy/nice, but i'm not sure that it would look so great on me. I think that it would look really great on say my sister, so maybe I will make it for her for her birthday... hmm... how to get her measurements... anyway here is a link to the pattern if anyone wants to make it, it could be fun http://sewnews.com/resources/library/0406beauty/index.html

Project update!

So now that I'm done with the corset I have decided to try to finish that second cabled glove and hopefully it will be done in time to wear it this winter. If not I suppose I will just wear them next winter. I'm also keeping my eye out for a good skirt pattern, I have this material that would make such a good going out and getting fancy skirt if I could just find the right pattern. I was thinking about something that flaired out a bit and maybe had some of that net stuff underneath to make it poof! I'm really starting to become a girly girl... I think the ladies at old navy are rubbing off on my a little. I just wish I had some nice jewlry to wear and some nice dress sandles... I got those boots and I just love them, but now I am needing something for the summer. After making that corset and a few other things I've realised how great it is to have something made to fit me... and fit only me.... made just for me. i'm sure you get the point. It's rare if ever that I find anything that I think, this fits perfect and that just kind of sucks. So I think i'm going to try to start making some of my own clothes... like dress shirts and skirts first and then later i will try pants and dresses. There are about 3 shirts in my clothest that I love that are in taters so I'm going to reverse engineer those and try to make some new ones out of more up to date material. Well here's to hoping.

Pictures of the corset!

So I decided to slip into the corset and get jason to take some pictures and
then i was like what's that smell? oh shoot the steak so i went to pull it out of the oven and jason shot this picture... Oh and the beans! so jason bought me a coffee roaster (kind of, it's actually a pop corn popper, but it essentially works the same way, operates at about 420 degrees F like hot air coffee roasters do), some raw beans, and a coffee bean grinder! So this is the end result! Fresh roasted beans!! It was the best anniversary present ever!

Here's Jason

So me and jason were out and about in the woods and I ambush style got a picture of him, so here he is trying to dodge out of the way... I'm only posting this so he will get annoyed and send me some pictures. (yes that's right to annoy you, so send me those pictures you promised!)

Finished!

I'm finally finished with my corset... just in time to. We, Jason and I, are going to be celebrating our two year anniversary this weekend! I'm almost done with a skirt to match it to. It's just a jean skirt made out of some old jeans and some scrap fabric, but it's still cute and free! I started working on the second glove again.. hopefully I will get it done before I don't need it anymore. If I'm lucky I will get a lot done on it this weekend. I can't believe I made a corset! it's so beautiful. I'm sure I will look back on it and say how the heck did I make something so badly, but it's my first and so of course it won't be my best. There are deffinately a lot of things I would change about it though.... like the sides are too long and need to be shortened up a bit, but I suppose that is just because I have a short torso. It's kind of funny, I have cleavage when I wear it. I've never had that before. hehe... anyway, I need to finish packing and clean up my appartment and get mr. beuler ready for the trip (I'm going to put the cage in the car first tonight and then just take him into the car in his carrier, it will hopefully be easier that way).

more progress!

Well, I actually got some stuff done on the corset. I finished all of the seam boning (boning that runs along the seam, which is a lot since there is about 12 seams on the corset). It actually looks pretty good too. I'm hoping to finish the rest of the boning that is just placed in the corset and not along the seams which is actually harder to place because there is no guide. There are twelve of those total. And then I will just need to put the trim on... which is the easiest thing to do. Unfortunately it will still take awhile because it needs to be mostly hand stitched... blah. If all goes well I should have it done by the end of the week... and even if it goes badly I will still have it done by the end of the week! so there!

Progress Resumes!

Well horray of horrays! I have worked rediculously hard all week.... all month and I am going to take this afternoon off and resume work on my corset! it's going to be so cute! I found this pattern http://www.modeknit.com/silk_corset.html and I'm thinking about making that to go over it... I was thinking in white... white to go with the white trim and maybe pink buttons to go with the pink fashion fabric layer. okay... i just finished lunch it's time to make some coffee and get busy!