skirt, ugh

Dec. 5th, 2016 11:52 pm
mandie_rw: (WC market)
Currently somewhat doggedly sewing the skirt to twill tape...I wasn't quite as sewing-productive today as I needed to be, so I have to get this skirt sewn to its waistband tonight if I want to have a new ballgown. Lost some sewing hours today for attending mom's choir concert, but I always enjoy that so it's okay! Bach Magnificat, some nice Christmas songs, a cute violinist in my line of vision...time well spent. ;)

As I did with the cream poplin, the skirt's pleated in the front, gauged in the back.Gauging is such a pain in the ass but I do like how it looks, so I keep doing it. :P
mandie_rw: (stoneskeef3)
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There are many songs I could listen to 20 times in a day...which is probably sad. Maybe not 20 times in a row, that's a bit excessive, but spread out? Sure. I'll try to narrow it down...

Beatles: In My Life, Here Comes the Sun
Rolling Stones: Jumpin' Jack Flash, Gimme Shelter
Who: Can I count Tommy as one song? No? Please?
Small Faces: Tin Soldier

Really, thinking about it, those are just examples. I love music entirely too much! Also, I am supposed to be somewhere...five minutes ago, and here I am, posting on LJ instead.
mandie_rw: (fan)
I survived the cartridge pleating! I should have done another line of stitching, but I Couldn't Take It Any More, so I didn't. It'll do.

I have high (if possibly unrealistic) hopes of actually finishing my dress tonight, probably minus the hem -- I still have to do the sleeves, but I'm not doing the cutouts in them (too bad, so sad), so they won't take too long, I HOPE. I've got a mockup of them now that I just have to fit to the armscye. Yay for the two-part sleeve I made for my gaulle -- a sleeve is a sleeve is a sleeve, thank goodness.

I wanted a nice chemisette, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen! How about a half-assed chemisette? Something's gotta go down the front of my bodice, or I shall be very cold and inappropriately hanging out, thanks to the cutouts! Which Lil Sis said, and I quote, "looks pretty cool." Which may be the first time she's ever said that about anything I've made, so color me impressed.

I'm also thinking of wearing the cameo brooch I inherited last year with this outfit...basic Internet research tells me it's probably not 19thc, but that doesn't really bother me. What does is that the same research tells me cameos weren't really popular til after c 1850, so my 1844 dress might be a bit early for that, and the fashion plates I've seen do seem to bear that out. I'm trying to decide how much that bothers me.

Yes, I actually WORRY ABOUT THESE TYPES OF THINGS. *eyeroll* Nerd alert!

Edit: And just to inform you all, I think the end of the world may be nigh, because Lil Sis just came and asked if I wanted to watch the end of Tommy, cause it was on TV, and she VOULUNARILY HAD PUT IT ON. Wow. I've decided she has a secret weakness for men with fluffy blond hair who look good shirtless, and I am totally going to exploit this to get her to listen to my music.
mandie_rw: (beatleshelp!)
Clearly, when I wish for a snow day so I can have "a whole day of sewing," I actually mean "a day of waking up really really late, starting to sew the 1840s mitts I cut out ages ago, getting completely derailed by my late Christmas prezzie, a new record player, showing up on the doorstep, and then going over my friend's apartment for dinner." But hey, I'm far too excited about the record player; I haven't been able to play my records in ages, since my mama's record player bit the dust, and I've gotten some new ones I was itching to play. Primarily the 1967 copy of Their Satanic Majesties Request, just because it's from 1967. And the cover's really cool. Plus the single and album that came in my Leeds box set. The player is nothing special (the speakers are tiny and the sound has no real bottom to it, but it's a step up from my laptop's speakers! And I'm no audiophile, really), but YAY I can play my records! Made it a point to play all the Who/Stones/Beatles albums first, and that took a sadly short amount of time. Need more...

Anyway. In between all this, I actually did manage to finish sewing something: my 1840s mitts. Something non-essential and boring to photograph, naturally.

(Please to be noting loverly shirt of Awesome Bass Player.)

They're made of plain black wool, lined in black silk that fabric.com told me was taffeta, but which looks a whole lot like shantung to me. Whatever, it was extremely on sale when I bought it a year or so ago, and I do not complain about cheap silk! Hand-sewn, because how long does it take to sew a pair of mitts? A couple hours -- or if you're me, two weeks, because they get buried under a pile of crap and you forget about them.

George

Nov. 29th, 2010 10:25 pm
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (beatles)
George Harrison, 25 Feb 1943 -- 29 Nov 2001



Me too, Ringo! :)

On the local classic rock radio station I listen to driving to and from work, I caught a bit of the "Beatle Break" today, which was George-themed, of course. They played a quote from an interview with George in the Eighties I think, and he was talking about the universal sound: the om, amen, &tc. Very deep, very George. He finished it off with, "There are some sounds that just touch your heart. And make you vomit."

LOVE IT. XD
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (stonescolour)
Specifically Stones and Who geekery )
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (beatlesjohn)
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Oh, yes, I can totally pick one Lennon song.

*starts humming "It's Johnny's Birthday"* ...which, yes, is off a George Harrison record.



The both of them, actually. <3 How convenient, I can post things about both of them!

So here's *A* favorite song from each )
mandie_rw: (fan)
Wandered the shops of Smithville with my family today, and in between going too far down the AC Expressway ("Why are we in Atlantic City?! We're not supposed to be here!"), being bored while my grandma, sister, and mother rode the paddleboats without me and carrying everybody's purses and jackets (I was afraid of knocking things over in shops, so I sat on a bench for a half hour and watched people with large dogs try to discourage them from eating the smaller dogs that passed by), and being deprived of malt vinegar for my fish and chips ("NO I don't want tarter sauce! Is this only a Princeton thing or what, malt vinegar?" "No, they have it at Long John Silver's." "Well that helps me NOW."), I encountered two things I really wanted.

One was eight dollars, which conveniently was all the cash I had. Goats Head Soupon vinyl, just in case you thought I was done buying useless music-related things. Why I love meh new album, blah blah blah )

Anyway, the other Thing was not eight dollars, and I, very, very, very sadly could not afford to spend the forty dollars it was. The shop I picked up Goats Head Soup in also had a bunch of vintage stuff (gee, it was called Vintage & Vinyl....). I dug through a drawer of patterns I found, but they were all bad 80s and 90s ones. Sad. Then I found all their vintage and antique clothing that was lurking in the back of the store, and, let me tell you, it's a good thing I know I have no money, because there was some crappy stuff, but a lot was nice enough for me to be very interested in it. Like the black silk bodice I found, which is the Thing I coveted especially.


(The one crap photo I made my sissy take with her phone. The shop lady was giving us the evil eye, and by that point I knew I wouldn't be able to buy it! Really should have gotten a shot of the back...)

It was, rather unhelpfully, labeled "Victorian." Yeah, thanks. And yes, I partly wanted to buy it to save it from being stored on that hanger. *flail* It was in bad condition already, and the shoulders were ripping, clearly due to being hung like that. Still, it was fascinating to look at all the little construction details -- hooray for unfinished seams! And the ickle brass hooks and bars -- so much stronger than the modern ones. And the ruched trim was hand-sewn on. And the piping around the neck and at the shoulders was done with the thinnest cord I've ever seen.

Covet? Yes, I think covet is the proper word here! Le sigh. I can console myself with 1/ I wouldn't be able to really store it properly either, and 2/ like I need to start an antique clothing collection, along with all the other crap I already collect? I think not. Still, the costumer in me will not be placated and is still pouting mightily!
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (beatles)
YAY I HAZ A GUITAR! (And a vacation, despite work starting tomorrow.)

I've been telling my mother for a month that I was going to buy a (cheap) guitar as soon as I got my first paycheck from my summer job, and last week she remembered that my stepdad got her a guitar, at least ten years ago if not more. She never ended up having time to really learn to play it, so it disappeared and of course nobody could remember what happened to it (did we get rid of it? Is it in the attic? Or the basement? Who knows?). I've been looking for it ever since she told me about it, and I'd almost given up and decided they'd got rid of it, because how many places can a guitar hide? It's not like it could be hiding in a box or bag, and our house isn't that big! But last night at 2am I was poking around the basement again, absolutely determined to find the thing if it was anywhere, and there it was, lurking in a corner. Yesssss.

And I haz a vacation because my stepdad, my mother, and my sister left yesterday morning to visit his sister and her kids in Washington. They'll be gone until next Sunday. Ahhhhh. *stretches happily* They're going on vacation, but I get one too...from them! Hee. And, well, they get one from me. I think everyone's pleased with this arrangement. Although my sister is 14 and as charming as all 14-year-old girls are, so I think I got the better deal. *smirk*

Anyway, the actual point of yammering on in an otherwise pointless post is to tell you all I'm making a filter for my music and guitar-learning antics, and see who wants to be on it...because I know the majority of you are costumers, and may or may not give a crap when I'm super-excited about learning a new chord or whatever. (The ones who friended me because we have similar obsessions with certain 1960s bands, I'll put on there automatically. Me learning guitar is closer to our similar interests than my usual posts, I think!) This looks like it's going to distract me pretty effectively from sewing for a little while, though!

It's going to be super-funny when nobody comments...

zzzzz.

May. 25th, 2010 11:31 pm
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (clockworktorture)
Ugh. Busy being lame. In sewing, this means I've been doing some needed but very non-exciting basic things. Dug through my costume bins and found a shift (only worn once, promise!) and petticoat to donate to the beginnings of [livejournal.com profile] mxrei 's 18thc costuming, and of course the waistband tapes need to be fiddled with to go with the rump I'm also giving her. And I also had to fix the waistband of my green linen petticoat so it fits over my 1780s rump properly, which for some reason took me all day.

Like I said, lame.

(But I did get my shiny new Exile on Main St. in the mail today, and I loves it. Good stuff. Hence my music choice.)
mandie_rw: (graceslick)
A meme. The list was given to me by [livejournal.com profile] xxinlovebutlazy ; it's the 5 things she thinks of when I come to mind. Anyone who wants a list can comment!

o1. Keith Richards
o2. John Entwistle
o3. Sewing
o4. Grace Slick
o5. (Your favorite Beatle, cause I'm not sure if it's John or George D;) Today it's John. By a smidge, because I love George a lot too, but I watched a TV program on John last week that made me all sniffly.

Memememememe...God, I'm SUCH a nerd! )

So...if you weren't sure I talk too much, here's definitive proof!
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (beatlesjohn)
Guess who's done with her senior thesis? That would be me! Woot woot. Due tomorrow, and it's both printed out and submitted online.

THIS IS SUCH A RELIEF YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

(Well, you know, actually a lot of you probably do, but then you'll understand my glee.)
In which I natter on about bits of my paper but it's okay because it's 1960s and fashion )
mandie_rw: (beatleshelp!)
I made something; yay! It's not even sort of a bridesmaid dress, but we're ignoring that for right now. I've wanted to make myself a new bag to carry my books for months, as carrying the same one for two semesters in a row bores me. Wanted to get it done before I go back for the semester, for obvious reasons. I had the Brilliant Idea (it seemed to be when it came to me in my boring lit class, anyway) halfway through last semester, and was itching to get home to make it -- then typically put off actually making it until the last week of the holiday.

Anyway. I decided to pick the covers of some of my favorite albums because I have the music taste of an Old Fart, and listen to music from back when people actually bought entire albums...and I do that too, print them out, and encase them in plastic and sew them together. (I've seen other bags similarly made, but not with album covers, so I am still Somewhat Original.) Well, it ended up being my Very Favorite Albums, and Albums That Are Brightly Colored And Would Make A Cool Bag...but they're still some of my favorites, and I own most of them in a more tangible form than a file (fabric is the only thing I spend more on than music!) because, like with my books, I like to pet them and take them out and just look at them.

Ahem. Rambling ahoy. So I finally got the clear vinyl I needed (finally, Jo-Ann's is good for something besides ugly polyester silkies and bolts of muslin) to actually make the bag. I copied the front covers of the CDs I have (yay for a color photocopier at home), and got the ones I have on vinyl from the great Google. Cut them out and taped them to the same blue paper I use for my patterns for a bit more sturdiness (not glue because it leaves those nasty bubbles and lines). Then today I had fun aggravating my machine and completely ruining a needle by sewing many layers of vinyl together.

All the album covers, sewn into panels for the bag and laid out pretty next to each other. Bonus Cat. (I would like to note at this point that I briefly entertained an idea of making an All-Beatles bag...but albums from other groups have pretty fun covers and I love most Old-People Music, not just the Beatles, plus I couldn't resist putting Sgt. Pepper right next to Their Satanic Majesties Request, just for a comparison...)


It all went together pretty well, though I learned a very valuable life lesson today: You can't turn a bag of vinyl inside out. You know, like how you'd normally sew seams on the inside and turn the object inside out? This does not work. Vinyl is totally uncooperative, and crinkles up into a large ball with many sharp corners (I know, a ball with corners? I was surprised too. Until it stabbed me). If I'd thought about this for more than three and a half seconds before sewing it all up, I probably wouldn't have done it...Live and learn!


After learning this valuable life lesson, I took out all the side seams and just sewed them facing out, calling it Good Enough. The paper is surprisingly not too much the worse for wear, despite having been very squashed. Abbey Road was a little crinkled (and I was Muchly Displeased), but it all smoothed out well enough. I made the straps from scraps, and of course I like them because they are stripey. (My sister is modeling the bag, because she was all impressed that I've actually made something useful for once.)


This is all probably infringing on somebody's copyright, but if I promise not to sell it, hopefully you all won't report me. *grin*
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (beatlesjohn)
I meant to be wonderfully productive today, but only got a tiny bit of sewing done on one sleeve of the Tudor gown. I blame VH1 - they were celebrating the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, and I got totally distracted from sewing when I sat in front of the TV. (Yes, it would have been completely impossible to have sewed and watched television at the same time...)

no subject

Jan. 27th, 2009 10:44 pm
mandie_rw: me 1950s green dress (whojohn)
I have to get up early tomorrow. Yuk. To go to the dentist. Double yuk.

The entire purpose of this post was to complain about that, yes.

And to remind myself to bring my Beatles Monopoly back up to TCNJ and play it, per [livejournal.com profile] bagiism 's recommendation. Hee.

(Also, for some reason, the song I'm listening to right now is totally cracking me up. I've listened to it like three times in a row...John Entwistle's songs for the Who = <3

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