Tablet sleeve test

Mum, Dad and Maddy are off to Bali on holiday in a few days, and Mum bought herself a tablet to take with her, which arrived a couple of days ago. Tonight, I had a go at making it a sleeve, and I'd have a go at an idea I had a while back for a zip down handle, which could make it be a bag too.

The zip curves around the entire top of the bag, and only the bottom side of the zipper is sewn for the whole length, while the top zipper is attached at either edge.

I like the idea. But I've realised that the top curve in particular warps the body of the sleeve a bit too much fr me to be satisfied with, so next time I'll do it with two short zips so they only curve one way, and only in the middle of the bag as opposed to on the corners, where it's more noticeable.

Also, as usually when I make a sleeve for a piece of technology, it's ever so slightly too small. It fits, but barely, and it makes the edges where the closure zip is (I could only find one pink zip) stick out weirdly.

And now I'm off to play the moustache drinking game. Happy Thirsty Thursday everyone

:{P

Genius.

Today at work, I saw a lady wearing skinny trackies. It was a revelation. Trackies fabric, skinny jeans cut. How genius. I have tracky fabric, it's what I've been making my jackets out of. I have a pair of skinny jeans that were in too bad a condition to give to the salvos, or I did until I chopped them up for a pattern tonight. I haven't actually made them yet, because the big bad internet got in the way, but I have hopes. They are on my tomorrow to-do list, along with not drowning in the puddles in the yard. It's been a bit moist out tonight.

Shame

I've spent the past few days waiting for the urge to clean out my closet to hit. I've known it was about to arrive since mid last week, though I couldn't tell you how or why. I just knew that I was about ready to do it, and that when it was going to happen, it would.

Tonight it happened. I was going to make a start on the back of the striped lattice quilt, using more of the blue as well as the 9cm strips of striped fabric I'd cut way more than necessary of for the binding. But then I couldn't find said strips, and bam! Suddenly it hits, and I'm pulling everything out and trying it on to see if I should keep it or not.

I accumulate clothes like something else that accumulates a whole lot of things without noticing it. I cant think of a good simile for that one, so I'll say this: every time I clean out my cupboard, I can fill at least two big garbage bags worth of clothes and shoes to give to the salvos. Without realising it, I end up with a couple of dozen pairs of jeans, and twice that in shirts, and then all my piles topple over, because I'm not very good at folding things that aren't quilt fabric.

And even though I feel bad that I have so freaking much stuff, I don't know if it's okay for me to be ashamed (because oh boy am I a victim of capitalist consumerism) when I'm giving all this stuff to charity. Not to mention the fact that probably half of it came from the Salvos to begin with - I think the fact that it's so cheap there is a big part of how I manage to accumulate so much.

Maybe the Salvos should be ashamed?

#shameless

Mentally, whenever I am talking to myself, I preface it with "You guuuuys..." and I have no idea why. I kinda hate myself for it, but on the other hand, I love it. On that note...

You Guuuuys, someone made the perfect tumblr for meeeee....

http://acollectionofwellbehavedbeards.tumblr.com/

I think the name says it all, really.

Wait, what?

Tonight I found myself only wearing one sock, after I got an itchy foot a couple of hours ago and took my sock off to scratch it. I hadn't realised how long it'd been - I must have done it all the time a couple of years ago, since I named my blog after my tendency to end the evening wearing only one sock. I'm not sure why it's not happening much any more, except possibly that my heels are a bit more callused these days, and maybe that helps them grip socks better.

What's more I've passed both 2 years of blogging and 850 posts without noticing. In much the same way, it's already the wee small hours of Monday morning and my weekend is all gone.

How did that happen?

So there...

I've done a pretty good job with the clothes, haven't I? Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm quite happy with what I've done in the past few days. I've got my coat perfect (and I can wear it to the gym after I wore it out on the town) and I made a fluro drapey top with some unknown fabric that had sat in my cupboard for years, and still had tags on it from the salvos, so I figure it probably sat in someone else's cupboard even longer. The fact that I took it off after 10 minutes isn't the point - I was just feeling like rednecking in my white tank top and jeans tonight as opposed to dressing like a wanker in a fluro top.

Seriously, fluro? A party where the theme is fluro is a good idea? Did we learn nothing from the 80s? I suppose most of the people at the fluro party weren't there for the 80s. Most of them didn't come till halfway through the 90s.

I wanted to smack some of them in the head. And then set fire to them. Instead, I came home and played in the dark with a ball made of glow sticks. Because I'm a grown up, and I can do that if I want.

Can I have fridayitis? Is that a thing?

Today I took a couple of quilts into Spotlight because they're having a big quilting day in a couple of weeks and wanted people to bring in quilts to display. I think they may be having a competition as well, but they asked if I would bring in a few to get them started, so other people would know to bring in theirs. I took the green pavement quilt and the bluegrey quilt for starters, since they're both fairly big and both made mainly from fabrics from Spotlight. I showed them a picture of Carried Away and they said they wanted me to bring it in even thought it's really small, but it's a bit busy being loved by me right now. But I might wash and take in Sunset and the first blue and green quilt too, since they're just hanging about.

While I was in there I bought some Arctic fleece, which must be the next one up from the Husky I had been using, since it's $1.50 more. If I'm honest, I like the Husky a lot better - it's thinner but it has nice drape and it's easier to pin and it looks less "fleecy" if that makes any sense: the only reason I got the arctic was that there was some decent colours other than black - Husky only had really bright colours or prints. Tonight I made a red jacket, but I did a frankly terrible job of the back, and I'm starting to get a scissor blister on my thumb, which is probably a sign I should get back to quilting. But I've got a bottle green jacket and a sort of stone/puce/really pale brown jacket to make first.

I may need a bandaid.

It's not much yet, but in maybe a jacket and a half it will be bad.

Pattern Progress

I think a big part of why I don't like to pay much for patterns is that before long I have completely mutated the pattern into something else. I'll start with the pattern, redraft every piece over the course of a version or two, and end up with something completely different from what I bought.

Today I decided that I'd have a go at making the jacket without a lining. Spotlight has put all their polar fleece down by half price so I got 4 metres of black husky at $3 a metre, and the pattern changing began. Step one - merge a couple of pieces. The front as back are both comprised of two bits, and since it's draping instead of fitted I decided to make the front all one piece. And since it's draping down, I decided I'd raise the front hemline and give it a bigger collar too, so it had more to drape, but not as far to drape it.

The polar fleece worked pretty well, I just sewed each seam twice, about 3mm apart, and then trimmed close to the second one. Did a really basic folded hem - these are just test runs for wearing on daggy days around the house, so they're far from prefect. But I did a decent job, since even though they're just tests, they still take a whole lot of time and effort, and I can still use them even in their imperfection.


The original design (and this changed one) had a seam for the collar on the front edge in the middle of the drape. I didn't love that, so on the next run I decided to make the front and the collar one piece, meaning that the side front piece had to return. I tried making the back one piece instead but ended up adding some darts once it was finished anyway. I like the drape of this one much better, but I also raised the back where the collar is, and I forgot to lower the shoulder to compensate. I've changed the pattern piece, and added the darts to the piece for the back, so I should have a perfect version tomorrow.

I envy those people who can re-cut their own work to get it to hang right, but I'm not one of those people. Still, for $12 I got two jackets and enough left over to make most of a third, plus, knowledge!

PS, if it is perfect, I'm gunna make about a dozen of them for myself. This polar fleece is comfy and super warm.

Because it is already after 5am, and there are still tumblrs that need to be read...

Today there was sunshine. It was terribly strange, but then, I have barely talked for 11 days now, so my very existence has started to go a bit weird. I find myself regularly going and laying in odd places, staring at the light fittings or the bit where the door meets the roof, just because, as a person who is made up of words, and who has no words, life is weird. Also, did I mention it's 5.30am? Just as well I have no voice and got my shift replaced for tomorrow.

Back to the point, it was sunny today, and I went into work late (they'll let you be in charge with no voice, but not actually serve the customers) so I had time to go out and take some pretty pictures.

This quilt is so unlike all my other quilts that I almost love it the most, because it's so unashamed to let it's freak flag fly.

This is the holiday quilt, hand quilted by me, while I was high on the glue fumes from spray basting together, in a motel room in Adelaide, the layers of pre-pieced plaid, pink polar fleece (batting) and wool coating (backing). And I hand sewed on the binding too, which is actually woven polyester tape.

This is the Carried Away Miniquilt. Some point soon I want to re-do this in the solids I originally designed this to be in, and as a nine-patch.

The block itself is what I came up with for the GenQ block design competition, and since the magazine is out now, I think I can do my excited squeally they picked it!

This is the original colours. I only had enough to make this one block, which got turned into a cushion, which was promptly stolen by Casey, and then by Maddy. I also made a really hideous one, in a selection of other new DS fabrics, that I tentatively titled when bad things happen to good fabrics.

Naturally, one of the girls at worth thought it was kinda funky when I showed her the photo, so I've quilted it ready to eventually turn it into a cushion for her.

Grrr

The power going out has put a serious cramp in my night. I had plans man, and sure, I probably would have ended up playing bubble breaker all night instead of actually following through on them, but now even the chance has gone, and I feel robbed, man, robbed.