Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A Little Damp Around The Gills

This is the first day in ages where it’s been raining constantly. And of course this is also the day that I had to hoof uphill to the dentist at the crack of dawn to get my new bridge installed. Fun times! At least we’re done now and all I have to do is take it easy on chomping for 24 hours or so to let the adhesive set and we’re good to go. Hopefully for a good long time. Right now I can tell the freezing is coming out because I can feel the bruise from the needle. Oh poor me.

So what is with people these days? As I was walking in the rain this morning, nobody else nearby (I erroneously thought), listening to podcasts on my iTouch, I suddenly got shouldered aside by a lone jogger. Sheesh! It surprised me. It was just plain rude. He could have yelled out that he was coming and I would have politely moved over. It’s not like the sidewalk was that constricted. It was an older guy too and obviously one with no consideration. His mommy unfortunately didn’t manage to teach him not to shove little old ladies around. What if I was unsteady on my feet and got knocked down? Would he have just kept running and never noticed?

Anyway I did get to wear both my Minoru Jacket and my new Tulip Tunic. Along with my pirate boots with the tops flipped over my knees and an umbrella, I kept pretty dry. Yes, I finished my sewing project yesterday and I’m actually quite pleased with how it turned out, difficulties aside. Wanna see?

Tulip Tunic

Note I was practising my goofy model poses here!

Completed:  April 2012

Fabric:  cotton/lycra interlock, true red, 60” wide/1.5m. From Dressew.

Notions:  6 red plastic buttons, clear elastic, 5/2 perle cotton (emergency string!), Mettler polyester sewing thread, poly serger thread.

Pattern:  Self-drafted using my dartless stretch blocks for the bodice and a ruler for the skirt.

Comments:  This tunic really doesn’t resemble my original inspiration much (a dress from the Navabi website):

Navabi tunic

But that’s just fine with me. I like my version better. I was forced to scrap the ribbing fabric remnant that I was originally going to use for the bodice when I found out that it was too stretchy and lightweight to support the relatively heavy interlock skirt. The clue was this crazy distortion that happened when I tried to bind the sleeve hem:

SleeveDistortion

I was pretty disappointed but realised that I had enough of the interlock to make the bodice as well as the skirt so that’s what I did. I used a little strip of clear elastic to help keep the shoulder seams from stretching out. Luckily this time the bindings worked out fine. I machine-stitched them on before serging just to make sure they were going to cooperate. After serging and pressing flat, I topstitched them down with a small zigzag.

RedButtonI also had trouble with the skirt when the hem binding (which I did differently from the neckline and sleeves) stretched out more than I expected. I saved the slight bubble effect by threading a string through the binding and securing it at the seam-lines. Hopefully it will hold up over time. I probably should have used the same binding technique that I used on the neckline instead of the fold-over version. But I didn’t know that until later!

The buttons are more for decoration than function but I do love the funky pockets. They can hold my hankie and my iTouch.

Oh, and I got this exciting item in the post:

ArtPostcard

It’s an art postcard from Cynthia St. Charles, an art quilter who’s work I admire a lot. This went through the mail all by itself and survived well but with just a little thread coming loose there at the left top corner. Here’s the back (addresses hopefully fuzzed out enough for privacy):

ArtPostcard back

It’s called “Bamboo” and quotes Bruce Lee “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” I love it! Thanks, Cynthia!

4 comments:

Suzanne said...

this is weird funny! we seem to do things in tandem...just came back from dental surgery. yep goo for dinner here. Neat dress!

Louisa said...

Oh poor you! At least with the bridge I was able to eat pretty much ok. Just no corn nuts or anything really hard for awhile! Hope it feels better soon.

Carolyn said...

Oh, that fabric postcard is the most adorable idea! Thank so much for the inspiration!
Your dress is terrific, and does look better than your inspiration photo. Gorgeous colour!
Thank so much for visiting my blog!

Ev said...

The dress looks great and looks great on you. That postcard is fantastic! What a lovely treat! Are you familiar with Postcrossing? If you like getting real mail, you'll love it!