First Fitting

So, apparently, I'm not a size 12. I'm a 10. I kind of knew this, but I assumed pattern sizes were different to shop sizes. Anyway. The dress is huge. I had to sew all 8 seams at 23mm, rather than 16 because it was just so big. But at 23mm seams it fits amazingly. So I don't know what to do with the actual dress. Cut the seams to be sewn 5mm smaller, or sew a massive seam. I'm a bit afraid cutting them smaller for fear of messing up the design. What's really annoying is that 12 was the smallest size of this pattern, so if I wanted to go to a size 10 I'd have to buy the pattern again, which I'm not about to do. I haven't sewn the arms and top yet, so I'm a bit afraid that with my bigger seam allowance it won't all fit together properly. Hmmm.

I don't have any other news.

Dress part 4

I didn't update over the weekend. Not for lack of progress, but because Guild Wars 2 came out and when I finished sewing for the day (which was early, I'll admit) I went playing. Over the weekend I got the princess seams and the pleats done. Today I put the whole thing together and tried it on. It's too big. I knew it would be, because with about 2 seams to go, I realised I'd been sewing the wrong seam allowance. I'd been sewing 13mm, when I was supposed to be sewing 16mm. Sigh. Anyway. I'm just going to sew 3mm inside all the seams around my torso (no need to do all the way down - the skirt is wide enough not to notice). So It's looking kinda cool - even for a mock-up. The skirt is massive. I think I'll need about 3 petticoats to pull it off. I have one and the material to make a second, but don't know where the third will come from. Ah well. That's a worry for another day.

Guild Wars 2 is amazing. It's the best designed game I've ever played (or at least MMO). I actually prefer playing with lordkilljoy than on my own. The game is really set up for doing things together. And there is so much to see and do, and all the cities are beautiful, and the storyline is fun, and I just want to play all the time. One of my favourite things is the dye system. You can change the colour of your clothes as often as you want, so when I get bored of one colour, I simply change it to another. But what I really love is that they make it so accessible. In GW1, you had to buy / trade or find dies and you could only use them once. So to make your whole outfit red, you had to get 6 (or whatever number) red dies. And If you wanted to go blue then you had to get 6 more dies. It was really limiting. Whereas in GW2 when you find / buy / trade a die it gets added to your collection and you can use it as much as you like. It's a small feature, but the game is full of helpful little elements like this that make it a pleasure to play.

Yea. I don't have much other news.

Dress, Day 3

I got about what I thought I'd get done today done. So that means the rest of the material is cut and ready for sewing. Now, start the procrastination machine. I'm so scared of messing up that I don't even want to try. Is that perfectionism at work, or is it something else? And this is only the mock-up. Okay, worst case is that I waste a few days when I realise I've done it wrong and have to go again. No big deal. Right. Tomorrow I start sewing.

As I wrote that sentence my brain went: have I forgotten some vital step, something that happens after cutting that isn't sewing? Ah well. It'll be fine.

Right so. We're off to the pub for a few drinks with friends. I almost forgot to update today, let's hope I remember tomorrow - because I want to have these journals as a sort of step-by-step guide for the next dress I make.

Dress Part 2

Today I got half the material for the mock-up cut out. Cutting material takes ages. From laying out the pattern pieces properly, to pinning them to the material to actually cutting. I'm starving right now and my back is sore from leaning over the whole afternoon. And after it was all cut I had to mark the places where stitching starts and ends. I'm really hoping this stitching becomes clear when I get to the instructions, because right now I have no idea what it's about.

So yea. I get to do it all again tomorrow. But I should be faster because I found the best way for me to cut the fabric while staying within the lines of the pattern.

Other news of note: we pushed Disneyland out by a week. We hadn't realised it was a bank holiday when we booked, and I imagine the park will be packed. So that's a bit sad, but let's hope it means our trip will be even better because the queues won't be so long.

I need to get myself a dress icon.

I'm making a dress

Ever since lordkilljoy sent me a link to some 50s swing dresses a few years ago, I've been obsessed. I think they are the most beautiful dresses a woman can wear. But they are way too expensive to buy and I've contemplated making one for ages. So, last week I came across (very accidentally - I was looking at a random craft tutorial generator) a beautiful pattern - the most different I've seen - and I had to make it. It's vogue 2903, and it looks like this:



I bought the pattern, read the instructions, got material and notions (look at me using proper terminology) and today I cut out the pattern pieces. It took ages and my hand was killing me from holding the scissors by the end of it. I went super-carefully, ironing the printed sheets first then cutting exactly on the lines.

I hope to get the mock-up material cut tomorrow. And maybe start on the sewing that. :) It's going to be so cool. I'll update again (tomorrow I hope with the rest of my progress).

Perseids

We went out into the countryside to see the Perseids meteor shower on Saturday. We drove for an hour, and the lights from Phoenix still stained the northern horizon. I don't know how far we'd have to go to get away from it, but farther than I'm willing to travel.

Anyway, we pulled off the highway and lay on the car, looking up at the sky. It wasn't perfect, though. There was a little cloud cover and the stars weren't the most visible ever. We did get to see a few meteors, though - which was cool. I saw 3 or 4. Tiny little streaks flashing through the sky.

The local fly population was out, and we were both paranoid about being bitten. So we ended up not staying long - only 20 minutes or so. A rustle in the bushes nearby sent us on our way with images of murderers in our heads - or at least in my head, anyway.

Still, it was fun. I drove us and I got to use the headlights for the first time. That was really exciting. Evil, sardonic Ria was all, "You are so sad," but I didn't care. Ooh - another fun driving thing - not related to that night - is that I've been driving our car since January, and more frequently since June. Today, I learned how to use the win-wipers. 8 months and in all that time I haven't been rained on until now. Amazing. I love Arizona. Okay, that might be too strong a word, but it is amazing having blue skies every day. I don't think I could ever get bored of it. Or ever learn not to feel aversion towards rain.

I've nothing else to say, really. Bye, then.

Ooh - actually, I did want to say that I think River acted as our shield and took all the mosquito bites on Saturday night. She kept moving around and fidgeting on Saturday night and today she's been scratching a little.

I'm such a lazy person

I don't know if I've mentioned on here how much I hate doing the dishes. I really do. There is no worse thing to do, in my opinion. Messing around with dirty water, getting it all over you and the kitchen. Scrubbing (I don't actually mind this part), rinsing, drying. I skip the last part. If there's something worse than washing the dishes, it's drying the dishes. The towel is wet after one pot and for the rest of the endeavour you're not really accomplishing much except putting towel bits all over your nice clean dishes. So I lie a towel on the counter and let the dishes drip onto that until the air dries them. Air doesn't mind drying dishes.
Anyway - I had to do the dishes today (our AirConditioning is still broken and I couldn't have the man see the ginormous pile of pots and other non-dishwasher things that had stacked up. and they had gotten a small bit smelly.) and it took me ages. The whole counter - about 1.5m x 1m - is filled with them drying. So that's done now anyway. I tell myself I'll try to do them as they occur from now on, but I know I won't. The weekend will come and I won't feel like doing it and then it'll be Monday and there'll be too many to face so I'll leave it til Tuesday, when there's even more and it's not until I have no pots and no pans left (and I have many) that they'll get done. Sigh.

I made French onion soup today for lunch. It was good. Not quite as good as that which you'd get a restaurant, but I didn't have 2 hours to let the flavours really develop - because I was hungry. The onions were slightly too crunchy and the broth wasn't quite flavourful enough. But it was good for lunch.

I can't think of anything else.

A recipe I have to make again

Lunch today was inspired by WholeFoods' cabbage crunch salad. I improvised based on the ingredients list and another cabbage salad recipe. And here it is, preserved for posterity.

Serves 1 very hungry or 2 not so hungry people

Ingredients

1/2 head of cabbage
2 tbsp silvered almonds
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp mirin (sweet japanese sauce) or any sweetener
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp light flavoured oil
1/4 tsp salt
pepper

Method

1 - toast the almonds by heating a pan over medium heat (or slightly hotter) and tossing the almonds until brown, about 3 minutes. be careful to watch them - it only takes a short while to go from toasted to burned.

2 - mix all the ingredients and enjoy.

So there we go.


We stayed up last night watching Curiosity land on Mars. Well, we missed the actual landing, but tuned in about 20 minutes after. The people on the team were so excited and happy. It was great to see. And it'll be really interesting watching the photos come in from Mars over the next few years and seeing if they find any remains / evidence of life.

We went to see Total Recall on Saturday. I really enjoyed it. It was pure action sci-fi with some very fun ideas.

Not much else happening.

baking

Some might say I've finally lost it, but I say: this is for me as well.
I made dog biscuits today. They involve 5 different flours, eggs and chicken stock (along with other baking necessities - like yeast). It was the most dough I've ever worked with. I even had to split it into 2 batches to roll it out because the counter space wasn't big enough. The recipe makes 200. I needed 4 trays to fit them all into the oven - thank goodness our oven is truck-sized (okay, not quite). They are in the oven now and will be until tomorrow morning - they get annealed. I can't wait to try them, they sound amazing. And with only 24 calories each, both me and River can snack on them without worrying that we are eating too much.
I also made "biscuits" for the very first time. I feel so American. So, they aren't really like scones. They are more like little nuggets of soda bread. They're dense - not fluffy like scones. And they were so simple to make. Yeay for food processors.

Yeay for baking.