Category: To Occupy my Time

The secret to comfortable summer skirt wearing.


Perhaps your thighs rub against each other while wearing skirts?  Prehaps this makes you not want to wear skirts, even though you love them?  Do I have a solution for you!  Get yourself to a running store.  You know the place:  expensive shoes; fancy shorts that cost more than you spend on a winter coat; thin, laid-back employees, still mellow from there 15 mile morning run. Once you find your running store, ask for some Body Glide.  It’s made for runners, but runners aren’t the only ones with chafing issues. You are now all set.  The next time you put on a skirt, slap some of this on your thighs and they will glide smoothly past each other.  So. Wonderful.

I’ve maintained for years that the Body Glide people are missing out on a huge marketing opportunity as I’m guessing the population of women with thigh chafing while wearing skirts is much larger than the population of runners who run far enough to have chafing issues.

Fabric Depot

This is where I buy a lot of my fabric, simply because it is so tremendously large.  Fabric Depot is (for my world) very far away from me. It’s a 20-minute drive or an hour on public transportation. But boy, is it fun when I get there!
 
In the summer you can shop outside and get great deals on clearance fabric.
 
Just one section of the store!  This is what I call the “fancy” material.  Bridal fabric as well as all the tulle and also material for workout clothing.
 
The pattern department is huge.  Aside from the usual shelf with pattern books, they have all these independent patterns.
 
Here is the fancy cotton, wool etc. section.  It’s such a big store they have to have huge signs hanging from the ceiling.

I regularly read Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing and often hear the lament from commentators, “I have no good fabric stores near me.”  So I feel very lucky to have Fabric Depot in my (extended) back yard.

The CT picture spread in VF

My Channing Tatum peccadillo is such that I not only bought this issue on the newsstand (actually from the supermarket) but TWO people gave me a copy.  I enjoyed the article, but the photo spread was my favorite part.  And not because it featured Mr. CT, (who I do not find that appealing in static 2-D, he only works for me in moving 2-D, a.k.a. movies) but because it was hilarious.

The cover isn’t too bad, it’s the captions inside that slay me.
 

Here we go.  The captions will be big and bold.  My commentary will be normal sized.
Tatum shares soup with a puppy.
This is actually a cute picture, one of his better static 2-D images. He, unlike many men of his era, can carry off a hat.  And I know he likes dogs.  But really?  Who thinks of these things?  “Get me a puppy!  And some soup!”
 
The former male dancer shows off his body.
Ugh.  The sweats!  Has Vanity Fair decided to become the new Seventeen?
 
A vintage Mustang.
Um. Okay?  But why?
 
A portrait of the young man as an artist.
Again, why?  Are these things planned ahead of time?  First, we will do the puppy/soup picture, then put you in sweats.  After that!  Step into this sweater and these velour pants and look arty.
 
Back in the saddle.
The other problem is that CT has a pretty limited male model look. (Paging Zoolander!) Above, we saw it face on, here he’s looking to the side.
 
Animal Magnetism
This is the requisite scrotum photo.  Though I actually like this one because he is squint-y smiling.
 

A view from the ranch.
What ranch?  Where does this ranch come in? It is not mentioned in the article.  And why waste a picture on a forgettable “ranch” view when you could be showing your public more CT?
 
Tatum in the riding ring.
Here we get his model look from the other side.  And learn that the shirt above, in the black and white photo, is blue.  And the “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha” part of me needs to point out that he’s not actually IN the riding ring, but standing right outside.
 
Puppies!
Yes, that is really the caption.  With the exclamation point.  Again, is this Vanity Fair or Seventeen?
 

Shot by Bruce Weber in 2001.
“Oh my god, is that his pubic hair?” Matt said, as I was walking him through the photo spread.  Hmmm.  It is.  And I hadn’t really noticed, either.  This picture was taken four years before he would appear in Coach Carter and five years before A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, when an astute reviewer would comment that “the camera doesn’t just love him, it wants to marry him, settle down and have his babies.” Yep-per.
 
A vintage boat.
Dammit!  We don’t care about the damn vintage boat.
 
Preparing to Launch
I sort of get this one, as the gist of the article is that Channing Tatum is big, but Channing Tatum himself seems to think he could be even bigger.  And I guess he’s willing to step into an astronaut suit for a cheesy photo shoot.

I mean really Vanity Fair?  This was the best you could do?

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: Fabric Preview and more muslin action.

Straight from the dryer.  The blue in the back is the color of the shirts/dresses. The striped material in the middle is to make bias binding for the shirts/dresses. The green seersucker (this is how I can get more seersucker in my wardrobe) and awesome print are for aprons.  Note:  It is very difficult to dry 10.5 yards of fabric.  Very, very difficult.
 
To review: Full Bust Adjustment gave more room in the bust, but then, due to lack of dart, gave too much room in the abdomen area.  I have not been able to find any solutions for this on the Internet and so…
 
…here is where I remove some from the sides to attempt to fix this problem.  It’s all I can think to do.
 
Eh.  I’m not sure that did much good.
 
Plus, now I’m wrinkly in the back.
 
I’m making the sleeve a bit bigger.
 
And here I am with sleeves. I don’t like how they flare out.
 
Back view.
 
Yep.  I think the sleeves need to be even bigger.
 

The Lorax Setup.

Kelly and I arrived at the park in Vancouver, Washington ready to see the Lorax.  We were early so we claimed a seat in the front and got to witness the trouble with the inflatable movie screen.

The wind was a problem.  It wasn’t big and gusty, just a persistent blowing that blew that screen right over.  They tried to raise it a few times and then called for backup in the form of stakes.
 

When the stakes arrived, up it went again.
 
And employees held steady.
 
And pulled.
 
And tugged.
 
And stood patiently while stakes were pounded into the ground.
 
Like what is happening here.
 
Some support?  Or just looking busy while chatting?
 
There was a lot of standing and waiting.
 
And phoning.
 
And waiting.
 
The mom said, “Okay 1-2-3 open your eyes” and the kids eyes flashed open for a second while she snapped the picture.
 
Still waiting. (Tom Petty says, “The waiting is the hardest part.”)
 
But that waiting ends eventually.
 
A band of caution tape to keep everyone safe.
 
And a tie off.
 
Go City of Vancouver!
 
An announcement about how it will all work.
 
More tying off.
 
These were darling.  This outing marks the first time I’ve seen the fold-y chairs with sun shades.
 
 All that hard work means kinks in the back.  Luckily, someone can do something about that.
 
Success! 
 

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: Muslin. Fitting the back.

So I’m writing this a few weeks after I took this picture which is a bad thing.  First off, this is going to be a “hmmm.  I think I was doing this here” sort of post.  But here goes.

I’m pretty sure this was the first go-round with the muslin.
Back. It would behoove you to take note of how loose and floppy the back is, especially in the lower back area.
 

Front. You can see where I’ve drawn in a line at my waist.  Also, please note the lines radiating from the bust point above and below the bust.  This will become important later.
 
More back?  Or perhaps a picture where I show off my massive arm?

After I took those pictures, I’m pretty sure I had Matt pin out the back according to the instructions on the Threads Torso Fitting DVD.  It seems that patterns are drafted as if we are straight up and down in the back and surprisingly, we are not, so there is usually a ton of excess fabric.  So here’s how it looks now, after pulling some of that fabric out.  Better along the top.
 
But still a bit poofy nearer the waist.  Except apparently I found that okay at the time.
 
 The cats helped by watching.
 
Here is my muslin ripped apart and set up to redo the seam.  Look at all that I took out.
 
And then, due to my massive deltoids, I just went ahead and gave me more room in the underarm area.
 
Given the wrinkles around the bust line, I finally agreed that perhaps I am not a B cup any longer.  Which means it was time for my first Full Bust Adjustment!  And here it is.
 
And here is how it looks recut and resewed.  So much more room.  It was a bit of a revelation.
 
But I think there might be too much room now? And look how much extra is in the stomach area.
 
 This is me frowning because I’m not really sure how to get rid of that excess material.
 

Pike Schemes found some good postcards.

I sent postcards when I was in Boise, but Pike Schemes found theirs in a different location than I did.  Two arrived today.

Get it?

(Um, in retrospect, you might not get it if you are not familiar with the touchy nature the natives of Idaho’s capital city feel about the pronunciation of their city name.   But for those of us in the know, it’s funny.)

Signs!

I love that the Boise Rescue Mission has a neon sign.  It’s one of the things I never found odd while living there, but seems strange now.