Monthly Archives: October 2014
trying new things
A quick material test for a potential project while the film we were developing earlier was drying. Because laser.
more pants
Earlier this year, I was really frustrated as I could not wear any of my regular pants because of that leg situation. So when medication started to wear off after a few weeks, I made pants. It really was the first thing I set on doing when I was somewhat alive again, because I could not stand the fact that this whole ordeal forced me to BUY pants for the first time in years.
They are a modified version of the pattern I drafted for the turquoise/teal pair of pants I sewed last year … Isn’t it great to be able to make something exactly the way one needs it?
Also, I love the fabric. it’s cotton and very light and flowy. The texture is a bit seersucker-like, but it’s a really loose weave, with the white stripes being woven into the fabric rather than printed on. Despite of it’s lightweight, airy quality, the fabric is very durable (I’ve been wearing it so much this summer, and it’s almost like new).
Also it’s not see-through at all, which is great and really made it the perfect piece of clothing for me this summer.
My stripey pants have a zipper with a hook and eye closure on top. The zipper is really long (I think 28 centimetres, or even 30), because my leg’s mobility was pretty restricted, and it was quite bulky because of the bandages.
But even when my leg was still in a pretty sad state, the modifications made it really easy to get in and out.
Also, I added slits to the hems that close with black ribbon to make (und)dressing easier.
Aaand pockets. Because pockets make everything better. I’m kind of impressed that I managed to get the right pocket AND the invisible zipper into one seam.
The only thing I would change in the future is the placement of the side seams: For some reason, they (and therefore the pockets as well) are a bit far in the back, but I think the pain medication that came with the leg-thing is to blame for that. Whatever.
needles
Some time ago, I saw a sewing machine needle case some genius had posted on craftster and thought it was the best idea ever.
And last week I was about to order a few new types of needles when I got so annoyed by this huge pile of tiny sewing needle boxes that I decided to sew a little organizer as well.
I just took the idea and ran with it, but mine is nowhere near the one I linked to when it comes to execution (straight seams and working exact and actually pinning and measuring things … Well). My version is rather wonky.
I really like that, for the cover, I was able to use a piece of hand printed cotton from one of last winters’ screen printing sessions.
I thought it would be nice to be able to adjust the thing, and I really didn’t want to spend too much time on making categories I wouldn’t be able to change later. So I bought a piece of this strange plastic tablecloth stuff that’s being sold by the yard and sewed it on to create little windows for exchangable labels.
I really love grey paper.
Other than preventing a chaos of tiny needle boxes and mystery needles appearing on every surface in the appartment, this system is great to keep track of needles between projects and different sewing machines.
The basic idea is very simple: Fresh, unused needles go to the edge and then move towards the center as they’re being used. That way it’s easy to see how much use the individual needles have seen, and what I can still use them for.
Thank you person on the internet for this glorious idea!
new old camera
A few years ago my grandfather gave me his old Canon AE-1, but I didn’t really use it as I found the whole film-thing to be quite annoying.
But now that I have access to a dark room (which also means being able to get the pictures right after shooting if I want to) it got to come out and play.
