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July 27, 2006
no sleep 'till monday
This week my wonderful, smart, funny, and beautiful friend Jennifer is visiting from Washington D.C. (oh yeah, her husband came too). Every spare moment (including those when I should be sleeping) I've been engaging in social interactions with them. Plays, concerts, bars, and heaps and heaps of laughter with Pinkie J and the Retailers. I expect life to return to normal (SEWING) after the big AA Birthday Extravaganza this weekend.
Posted by amy at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 21, 2006
people ask, "why do you still live here?"
So you all know by now that my hometown has been named Money Magazine's 8th Best Place to Live for 2006, right? I know as a homegrown Boisean, it is uncool to be all rah-rah about my little city in the desert. So I'll let the NYT do it for me.
Posted by amy at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
July 19, 2006
you don't have to make it yourself anymore!
The other day I was googling around trying to find pattern reviews for one of the dresses I'm making, and found this cool weblog written by a very cool crafty chick. While it turned out not to be the pattern I was looking for, I was sucked into Sarah's stories (your wedding dress is BEAUTIFUL!). Near the bottom of her recent posts page, she had photograph these awesome bonnet/headbands she had made and was selling on Etsy.
Have y'all heard about Etsy yet? This is the coolest place ever. A giant flea market/ebay of hand crafted stuff (and resources for some of the supplies to make said stuff)! This is the best idea ever! I am very interested in staying out of the mall and wearing unique and beautiful pieces. Something like Etsy is perfect for me. Needless to say, I paypalled myself one of Sarah's Bonnie Bands and am now awesomely able to keep my hairs out of my face while looking fierce. Or cute. Whatever.
Anyway, check out Sarah, check out Etsy, check out Sarah on Etsy, and check out more pictures of my purchase on my flickr stream!
(end link-o-riffica)
Posted by amy at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tags: bonnie band, etsy
July 18, 2006
sew busy
After I was conned into making Alisha's dress last week (read: I volunteered), my darling Kibberella asked if I would consider making hers too. Of course I said yes! 
I can make two fancypants dresses AND have houseguests AND do all the stuff for the big annual AA (Alisha & Amy) birthday bash before August 9 (when Sara Kibberella leaves for Massamachussetts). Eigh, what have I gotten myself into?
I'm hoping that Alisha's goes together easily, or that she is a sewing prodigy (all previous blanket-sewing experience to the contrary), because Sara's dress is going to require a lot of custom tailoring. It is roughly modelled on Butterick B4443, but we are changing the neckline, the shape of the sleeve, the placement of the waist (more empire), and even the flounce of the skirt. And I have to get it right because we're making it out of the end of a bolt of some very nice taffeta--if I screw up, we can't get more fabric.
Because I tend to screw up sewing projects all the time, especially when not exactly following a pattern, I am making a muslin. This is so unlike me! Planning ahead! Taking some extra time at the beginning of a project to discover problems before everything goes horrifically and irrevocably awry! Last night Sara came over and temporarily allowed me to use her as a human pincushion as I pieced the muslin bodice over her person. If I do say so myself, this dress is going to be fantastic and sexy and wonderful. She might even be prettier than the bride! (I am so going to hell for that link, but c'mon, FUNNY!)
I'm feeling very ambitious and accomplished and really glad I have a sewing room. I hope I keep the motivation going, as I've already got one of the fabrics to make this for myself as soon as the wedding dresses are done.
Posted by amy at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
July 17, 2006
matchity matchity
My friend Fern and I have recently been having some conversations about matching. The basic problem is that she undermatches while I horrifically overmatch. While both of us have truly been making a concerted effort, today we have reverted to form. Jennifern is sporting a lovely lavendar jacked with a black and white patterned skirt--perfectly appropriate work attire! Until you unbutton the jacket and reveal the hugely clashing multicolored blouse (which Fern has no intention of revealing) and the yellow and green flip-flops. This is nothing, however, when compared to the match-fest wrapped on my person today. It all started with a turquoise tee paired with some pink capris. Cute! Summer! 100+ degrees outside! Then I added the accessories. Pink pointy flats, turqoise earrings, pink necklace (beaded by the wyldeone!), and multiple turqoise and pink rings. Seriously, it's a human manifestation of the quellesurprise design scheme excecuted in vomit-inducing pastel glory. I need some help.
Hello, my name is Amy, and I'm a match-a-holic.
Posted by amy at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
July 16, 2006
morality tales
Today I did something I haven't done for years. I attended some community theater. Let me preface my thoughts by saying I am something of a theater snob--one with my nose so high up in the air I expect to be tripped at any moment. Obviously, my expectations were not high. Community theater does not, in this artsnob's mind, translate to Quality Theatre. It's good my expectations were low, because technically this production was severely lacking. The lighting was, frankly, terrible. Distracting, unfocused, poorly hued, and frequently changing mid-scene for no reason whatsoever. Yet the performances were strikingly good, especially in contrast. All of the actors seemed supremely comfortable in their roles, and the characters did not seem contrived. At times I was so drawn into the action that I forgot I was watching a performace--I was instead eavesdropping on the conversations of others. Throughout the course of the afternoon, there were a couple of flubbed lines and a few important statements were rushed (or lost in the lighting), but overall the timing and pacing of the piece was impeccable.
The play, Wendy MacLeod's Sin, is ostensibly a modern morality tale. Throughout the first half of the play, the seemingly angelic Avery Bly is described as hovering over pre-earthquake 1989 San Francisco in her traffic helicopter, holding herself above the grisly and dirty desires of the human condition. Her avoidance of sin is presented as an avoidance of life. Repeatedly she is referred to as cold or frigid. Her unwillingness to wiggle a toe in the pool of the seven deadlies apparently makes her inhuman. Post-earthquake (or, The Second Act), the audience is supposed to watch Avery confront her demons, engage in a little good and healthy sin, and join the rest of us on planet earth. While she does pander to some baser instincts by the time the curtain falls, I don't feel that her character actually undergoes any actual change. The visual tableau revealing her transformation is supposed to be a reunion with her alcoholic husband, but she in no way takes him back. Her journey through lust, rage, gluttony, and grand theft auto doesn't teach her that continuing a marriage with a man who has been completely consumed by his demons is a good idea (and I agree). While she may be standing next to him, she is echoing the tune repeated throughout the play, "I love you, but unless you make a choice to get some help, I am leaving you." The moral lesson I take from this is that, as the character Helen* alluded, we're all fucked up and there isn't much we can do about it whether we sin or not so we might as well numb our pain with whatever makes us content. For some it is embracing the baser elements, for some it is the denial of the human experience, and I personally don't believe in either. In my personal opinion, the only thing we can do is grow, something of which these characters seemed incapable of grasping.
Whatever my issues with the script (and the lights), I am impressed by the Stagecoach folk. The quality of the performace was truly unexpected, and gave my theater-watching companion and I plenty of fodder for discussion over a post-play lunch/dinner.
*played to hilarious perfection by the lovely Angela Buffington
Posted by amy at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 14, 2006
craftadelic
"Who knows, I might be really good at it."
-Alisha, 2006, in regards to her career as a seamstress.
In the summer, it is too hot in the desert for knitting. Plus, I still haven't picked up any size 8 dpns to finish the sweater I've been working on. Instead, I've decided to give myself a new wardrobe! My sewing room is in full production mode, at least until my houseguests arrive in a week or so and the room is magically converted into Guest Room. In the meantime, I've been stitching up skirts from a pattern I designed myself (roughly based on my Favorite Polka Dotted Skirt), a simple gored affair. I also have an idea for a blouse I'd like to try, but chances are it will fail as do many of my "I have no pattern, but can see it in my head" creations.
Most excitingly? I just picked up Vogue #2903, a pattern I've had my eye on for awhile but been a little afraid to try out. My darling Mammacita needs a fancypants dress to gay-marry The Pants's in next month, and I think this just might be the one. Plus, you know, I want one too. Preferrably polka dotted. Basically, I get to go fabric shopping and continue to help Alisha learn to sew.
But first we're going to try to refinish a giant picnic table and come up with some exciting outfits for our birthday party! (Invites will hopefully be up this weekend!) For someone who doesn't do much, I sure keep myself busy.
Posted by amy at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
weekend awesomeness
After two weeks of housesitting, and a great deal of confusion over too many weekend plans, I ended up staying home and sewing. Well, and enjoying some friends-getting-an-apartment-celebratory-cocktails and movies, but you know, whatever. Most of the weekend I was stitching away. My mending is almost entirely caught up (except for a hem on some wool winter slacks and replacing a liner in another pair of slacks that I probably won't ever actually replace and the slacks will sit in my mending pile until the end of days), and I made myself a superfun and flippy new skirt.
As the days have been getting hotter and hotter, I have been wanting some easy-to-wear, lightweight, mostly-doesn't-touch-my-body clothes that aren't completely ugly or falling apart (like last summer's hang-out threads). In my scrap basket I had a bunch of unbleached muslin that I think was once some "curtains" an old landlord had stapled to the wall, completely unhemmed. Cripes, I've lived in some shitholes. Anyway, I obviously replaced the curtains and kept the fabric. What better than unbleached muslin for summer wear? Cheap, easy, and forgiving. After just a couple of hours I had turned it into a gored skirt (v. flattering) with a nice wide waistband with a channel for a drawstring waist (no zippers in summerwear!). Then I spent hours and hours while watching a Project Runway marathon hand stitching the hem. Is there anyway to get a decent looking, machine stitched hem? Because for a simple, easy, quick skirt like the one I have in mind hand stitching is much too time consuming. Of course, I'm thinking the waist tie will be a handknitted i-cord (maybe with some dangly beads or something), but I'd much rather sit and knit than hand sew something. Anyway, pictures to follow.
