So I moved from Tucson to Seattle. I lost all hope of joining the military despite, in one way or another, training for that path for the last 8 years. That was interesting. Not much to do about it now, but start looking for something else to do with myself. The daily job hunt is ever so much fun (but not really). Yay life. And on to the crafty stuff.
I got a Pro account on Flickr, which means all the old stuff I have been posting over the years is availible again. I can upload lots more now without having to worry about what is becoming unavailible because of it. And the pictures can be seen in big sizes now, which is sometimes useful.
When I moved, I lost some of the patterns I had, and while I still have tons of them, I just simply could not find any of my dress bodice patterns, other than some that I had gotten straight out Janet Arnold, and were therefore untested and kind of really not the right size at all. So new pattern drafty fuu was needed. I was curious about the velvet bodies that were found on Eleanora Toledo, and wanted to see how they might fit me, once scaled up a bit. I sort of ended up not doing that. I used the back part of the bodies pattern, but modified the front to have a curved center seam.
The curved center part is not quite as curvy as usual (for me). I wanted to try out a flatter bust, but wasn’t quite ready to commit to a completly flat center seam: my previous experiment with that did not fit as nicely as I would have liked (http://www.flickr.com/photos/healormor/5
I made a full mockup of the bodice, and my intent is to keep it with the pattern pieces so whenever I am thinking of making a new dress, I don’t have to ponder how the pattern pieces I have will turn out. I will have an exact example of how they will turn out right there.
Notes on the pattern as it is:
The armscye is very tight, but not unwearably so.
The back sits very nicely, no funny gapping.
The bust does tend to get a bit of wrinkling, not sure how I feel about it yet.
The neckline is a little higher than I usually have, but then there are plenty of paintings that are at a similar level.
It could be a little longer, but it might start wrinkling up a bunch at the waist if I am not careful. I will consider making a mockup of a longer version. Or maybe even a pointly front version.
I think that before I modify the pattern, I would like to see what different construction and stiffening techniques do. I’d like to try out some cording, padding, and zipties. It will be interesting I think to see how the different stiffeners effect the fit.
I made a shirt for 
reynier for his birthday (mid December). I had been making it in secret for about two months, mostly at school during lectures, but sometimes asking people to keep him busy for me (thanks Bill and Perin!), and ended up having it almost completely done on the specific date needed. Thank goodness it fit well on him, I would have been very sad if I didn’t.
When we arrived in Seattle, I definately found that there were some afternoons where I just did not have anything to do. The house was all cleaned up, laundry and dishes done, the daily round of job applications all completed and sent out and I had nothing to do. One evening I decided to paint one of the wallboxes I made last semester. It was fun, and I really like seeing the finished project on the shelf.
I have a few more projects I have made lately, but have not quite processed the pictures and posted them on flickr yet. On a side note, my camera is acting wierd as shit, keeps turning itself on and off, over and over again. Once in a while, I’ll get lucky and it will stay on long enough to take a few pictures. Suggestions?
