Open for Business

I am happy to announce that my Etsy shop is now open and I've got two new dresses for sale! Check it out here.

Model is wearing the Petite Lunar Oracle Planchette necklace from Blood Milk Jewels.

Jack

I haven't posted in a while and dressmaking progress has been slow, but with good reason, I think. Meet Jack (short for Jack with One Eye) the sewing room cat.

Jack is a stray we brought in off the street. He was in pretty rough shape when we first found him - he appeared to be missing an eye and was suffering from a bad respiratory infection, on top of the usual fleas, ear mites, and parasites that come with a street cat.  It is worth mentioning that he is also one of the sweetest cats I've ever met.

After a couple of trips to the vet we learned that Jack is FIV positive and that his eye was not, in fact, missing.  His third eyelid was so red and swollen from infection that it didn't look like a third eye lid at all!  We were sent home with a lot of medicine (resulting in not a few scratches).

Progress is slow, but steady.  Jack seems to be feeling better little by little.  Unfortunately, he has to be confined to one area because we cannot risk sharing his respiratory infection (or FIV) with my other beloved cat, Athena.  So it looks like I will be spending lots of time with him in my sewing room, which is a good place to be.  While I know our time together might be short, I want to make it the best I possibly can for him.

Singer 15-90

Confession: I've bought three vintage sewing machines in the last month. In my defense, one was for my Mom and I did not pay over $50 for any of them.

How did this begin? For the past year I've been sewing exclusively on a 1964 New Home 532 ("The Green Hornet") which I bought from a nice man and his daughter. It had belonged to the man's mother, whom I imagine had recently passed away. This machine was in as good of a condition as a 50 year old machine could be. I really didn't need to do anything to it except learn how to use it and thankfully my purchase included the manual and a lot of other neat accessories. The Green Hornet changed the way I felt about sewing machines - they weren't all my enemies! I had become used to seemingly constant problems. This machine was the first that did not present me with constant problems, which makes sewing a lot more productive and enjoyable. A little oil each week and we are good to go. I even made my wedding dress with it! My only complaint about the New Home is that it doesn't handle heavy loads very well. Tasks like hemming jeans (which is incidentally one of my least favorite things to do - I actually paid someone else to do it once) were very difficult, even with the "humper jumper" (hehe).

I had read in several places that the old Singers were better for these sorts of jobs. I've already told the story of how the Singer 15-90 was acquired - the next thing to do was take it apart, clean it up, and put it back together. I won't go into a lot of detail on this process, as it has been very sufficiently covered on other blogs. I am somewhat mechanically inclined so this was fairly easy for me and also a lot of fun! So much fun that I ended up buying two more vintage machines, to be discussed at a later date.

The 15-90 is great machine and feels a bit different from other machines I've used. I love it! It is worth mentioning that wiring on the original electronic parts was scarily shot, so I ended up buying a new motor and pedal intended for these Singers. Eventually I will learn to replace bad wiring, but I don't have the time right now.

Before we get to the fun stuff, I would like to thank the owner of this blog for an excellent tutorial on restoring this machine.

Deconstructed.

Into the red kerosene, which looks very much like Kool-aid.

I raided the recycle bin for containers to soak all of the small parts.

"The Iron Maiden"

So Many Machines

Yes, I did resist the urge to use a pun in the title.

The last leg of our honeymoon roadtrip was a stop in Las Vegas, because I had never been there and I wanted to see it. Nestled in the chaos of the strip, there is a clothing store called ALLSAINTS. I didn't actually go in the store, but I was mesmerized by the exterior. The store was enclosed by a wall of hundreds of antique sewing machines!

I don't think I have ever seen so many sewing machines in one place, ever. It was a really beautiful display, but I could not help but feel a little sad, since the machines were in good condition and I'm sure all of them could be put to good use. Similar to the way I feel when I see a musical instrument that is no longer played.

Months later I was thinking about these machines and reading about what a pleasure it is to sew with ones like them. I looked on Craigslist and soon found an ad that interested me. The buyer wasn't asking for very much money, but I became a little suspicious once I realized that the ad had been up for almost a month. Then I looked at the pictures and the reason became clear - the pictures were awful and you could not tell anything about the condition of the machine. In fact, you could not even see it because the head was still folded into the table. I could make out the black motor and that was about it. The only useful thing the owner did post, was a picture of the manual for a Singer 15-90. I decided to take a chance and hope that it was actually a 15-90 inside the table and that is was not in terrible condition.

The next afternoon I found myself in the owner's garage, where the machine and table had been properly set up. The machine was running and fairly clean. I could not imagine why the owner had not photographed it like that in the first place, but I was glad because it gave me the opportunity to buy it. Not only that, but the drawers of the desk where chock full of accessories. So my project for the last couple of weekends has been getting her cleaned up and ready sew, but I'll save that for another post.

One more thing: the cast iron head of a 15-90 weighs about 30 pounds. Assuming that most sewing machines of the time period weighed about the same, I  hope this wall never falls on anyone. Geez louise.

Dress "E"

Having grown somewhat frustrated with my most recent pattern making pursuits, I decided to take a break and make something fun for myself. I recently bought a copy of Stylish Dress Book: Wear With Freedom by Yoshiko Tsukiori. The photography is beautiful and the dresses are very cute and though most aren't really my style, I had to make the one on the cover - dress "E". The fabric I used has bunnies with what I'm guessing are large red bows but they also look like little packs. I like to think of them as hitchhiking bunnies. 

The pattern itself was very good and the directions were very simple and easy to follow (I made myself follow them). I am very pleased with how dress "E" dress turned out, though I am sad to say that this dress is not quite as cute on me as it is on the model, who has a lovely, but very adolescent figure. That being said, I can't wait to wear it!

An Owl Interred

I found a dead owl in the street yesterday. While I hate to see any animal left to decay on the side of the road, I felt this magnificent little creature deserved a little more respect, so I took it upon myself to give it a proper burial. Of course this interment took place on property not in my possession, because I certainly do not wish to be slapped with a federal offense for treating the deceased with a little reverence. Rest in peace, little guy.

Blood Moon

I got up just before 3 a.m. last night to see the lunar eclipse. Even though I've seen eclipses before and know what to expect, my heart still skips a beat when I look up to the sky and the moon is red. So spooky and beautiful! I was too sleepy and lazy to set up a tripod as I should have (and I was also trying to be very quiet so as not to wake sleeping husband) so my pictures turned out a bit blurry. Next eclipse is October 8, hopefully the skies will be clear and I will set up my camera properly and get a much better shot.

Saturday Dress Challenge

Sometimes I like to challenge myself to small feats. Last Saturday was Spring Gallery Night in Fort Worth and I wanted to have a new dress ready to wear. I had weeks to accomplish this but had spent so much time on pattern development that I had not sewn a real, wearable garment in over a month. So Friday night, I issued the challenge - go to bed by midnight, get up early, and finish a dress before 6:00 pm.

I used the same pattern that I used for my wedding dress, with a few tweaks including three-quarter sleeves and pointed collar instead of peter pan. I didn't actually get started until 10:45 am, because I wanted to finish a muslin I was too tired to finish the night before; this was probably a mistake. By about 3:00 pm, I was pretty sure I was going to fail miserably, but I pushed myself and somehow managed to finish by 5:58 pm. Then I had a shot of tequila and jumped in the shower. Gallery Night with my husband was a lot of fun!

Overall, I was very pleased with how my dress turned out, though I could have done a little better job with the zipper and hem, both of which I had to tackle in less than an hour. Zippers are just a pain in the ass and I cannot hand sew the hem of a full skirt in 20 minutes, so that had to be done on the machine. On Sunday I tore those out, and will give them the attention they deserve this week. I bought enough of this fabric to make two dresses, so I hope to have my first dress available for sale soon...

It has also become clear that I am losing the most time laying out and cutting the fabric. I need to find ways to improve the process - a bigger cutting table certainly would help!

FUJIFILM FP-3000B

FUJIFILM FP-3000B is being discontinued. This is probably my favorite film. So sad. I'm stockpiling as much as I can afford in our refrigerator, but it isn't much and film doesn't last forever. The tough thing is deciding what is worthy of a shot. The cost of the film has already doubled. Two bucks a shot and when it's gone, that is the end.

Desert in December

For our honeymoon we took a nine day road trip through the Southwest. I had driven between Los Angeles and Texas twice, but was in the process of moving (with my cat) both times and was not able to enjoy the trip much.

I've recently become interested in 35mm photography. In my collection of old cameras I found a Nikon FM, which I cleaned up and brought along on the trip. These photos were taken in White Sands, NM and Joshua Tree, CA.

I love the desert.

My first entry. I've created this blog to document my adventures in designing and sewing clothing. I imagine I'll include some music and photography stuff, as well. Admittedly, I've had trouble keeping up with blogs in past, but I will try to do better this time around.

I got married about two months ago. Like many brides, one of my primary concerns in wedding planning was my dress. I knew what I wanted early on. It was very simple, yet too specific to be found ready-made. At first I thought I would hire someone to make the dress for me. Then I remembered that I've been sewing for over 20 years - paying someone else to make my dress was ridiculous. So I decided to design and sew the dress myself. In hindsight, I am very happy that I accepted the challenge and I'm glad that so many people supported my doing so (though at times I felt like damning them). Ultimately, it has given me the confidence I needed to finally start designing and sewing dresses to sell. My desire to get out from behind a desk gives me the motivation. And without further ado, my dress. Much of the detail is lost in this picture, but you get the idea.