Waiting, wondering and roosting

What am I waiting for??/ My Hot mama chicken apron swapper!!! I know the partners are getting matched up today and I want mine now!! :-)  I want to blog-stalk my new partner, I want to plan a style, search for the perfect fabric and see all the sneak peeks!!!

What am I wondering about? Same dang thing!!! Chicken swap! And I keep hearing this mantra in my head: I'mmmmmm a chicken hawk and I eat chickens!  Anybody out there remember Foghorn Leghorn and that teeny, tiny, little chicken hawk that was always trying to catch him?? FYI, his name is Henry Hawks.

Roosting? I have a deadline to meet and I really, really, need to hunker down and ''getterdone". It's mostly hand work at this point and then the skirt. I also forgot to go pick up my daughter's dress yesterday....yes, another wonderful menopause moment. This aging thing.......not really enjoying it to its fullest.

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A mini update on the corset

Well, this is the fashion fabric all sewn. I still need to trim the inside and give it a quick press. 

It's much prettier in person, really. Very sparkly!!

This is the inside of the support layer. I was going to have the channels face the fashion fabric, but it just had too many lumps and bumps to make me happy.

So I decided to make a lining. This fabric is sooooooooo soft! So soft it makes a baby's behind seem unsmooth. I have a chemise out of this fabric....sheer 100% cotton voile; yummy stuff.

And then, later tonight after all the layers are attached: grommeting!! Look out male parts! ;-)

I should have part three of the tutorial up this weekend because I should be done with the corset Friday!!

Yippee and skippee!!

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Embroidery: from the freakishly good to just plain freakish!

I had to take a drive into Berkeley today to Lacis....Textile and Lace Museum. The retail store has needle work supplies to die for!! I was there for corset supplies. Well, their new show opened up...embroidery.....wow!! The Japanese stuff actually looked real!  Below, a little of what I saw.................jaw dropping, really.

 Japanese. The feathers look real!!

see how real, even up close and personal!!!

Chinese sampler. Probably used as a marketing tool for someone's work.

this is ALL embroidered!! No plain fabric anywhere!

 The two pictures above are 17th century and it is red velvet with gold wire embroidered on. 

A lot tarnished, but wow!!

Kimono top

even the pleats have embroidery!! The pleats!!!!!

The next three shots are of this picture that looks like pen and ink.......it ain't!!

Can you guess what it is embroidered with??? Victorian era.

If you haven't figured it out........human hair!!! I know, right, OOOOoooo and ick all at the same time!

The next exhibit will be :underwear through the ages......can't wait!!!!

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Mooooooooove over sock monkey

The white cow, she is done! She's so ugly/pretty. I wish I could've found  white socks as sturdy as the red- heeled monkey socks, but alas, thin knee-highs from the girls department had to do.

Here she is, still in pieces.

Look at that half a face.....happy little cow!!

Her she is, alllllllllll done!

 Tonight is her first dress rehearsal at the Hapgood, and tomorrow night, her first show!!

Her name is Milky White and she has a short, non-mooing part in Side by Side by Sondheim.

Here's wishing her all the best!

Break a leg, Milky!!!

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What's been keeping me sew busy?

From the mundane to the whoa!, I've been sewing, sewing, sewing!
Here's a taste of what I've been up to for the last few weeks.....at least the stuff I haven't already blogged about! LOL

First, the mundane......sewing a patch on a gi.......freakazodially heavyweight cotton.

Thimbles are a good thing! :-)

Next, replacing a few buttons on a black pea coat that attracts 

white cat hair like an electromagnet on crack!

Pillowcases for the daughter...well loved!!

Hobo bag from a free web pattern for dot.......not so well loved. 

I may turn it into a giveaway. Just sayin....

Many mug rug for the hubster. He loves it!! Who knew?!

Apron for the mil....I think she likes it, I just don't know. It's from vintage 70's fabric...it's ''bad".

A Sock monkey with a heart tattoo for my brother. 

He dressed it in a Tennessee Titans cap....wrong, just sooooo wrong.

PJ pants for the boy.

Is it wrong that I took the time to match the plaid on jamjam bottoms? 

Probably, but it was a great place to practice that skill.

A Star Trek stocking for the worship pastor at church. 

He's a fan...not as nutty as me, but then, who is?

(Karen, yours is better. Amy, your emblem turned out better than mine)

Still working the wedding dress/corset. It should be complete by the end of next week!!

What's next????

Well, I found this fabric in my stash...I'm thinking it should be a scrubs top. 

Hey Deb, is it too much????

I know, it's wrong on sooo many levels but it's awesome fabric!

Sooooo, tell me whatcha want, whatcha really, really want!

And last, but not least........a sock cow. The local theater gave me a call and they needed a white sock monkey type cow for their current play. It WILL have an udder!!! 

I can't help myself. the nose and the udder will be the pink dots.

                                     

Oh look.......no pic here!!! LOL  I am in a pillowcases swap and I haven't picked my fabrics yet. 

It's red....I loves me some red!!!

Look out, I only have two weeks to get this stuff done and the threads and scraps will be a flyin'!

What's new with you out there in blogger land???

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Rain drops. So many raindrops.....................

It 's raining.................again. I know this means the drought is coming to an end, but I am quite sure they won't put the water bill back to normal or tell us we don't have to be ultra conservative anymore.
As much as I am tired of the rain, sometimes it's just beautiful to look at. Sooooo I went and looked at it.
And I went a fell into the rose bush trying to get a cool shot. I did NOT get a cool shot, but I did have to pick thorns out of my hand. Yeee and ouch!!

And the winner is......................................................................................................

16
Random numbers generated Jan 11 2011 at 8:28:49 by www.psychicscience.org

Lucky number 16!!! let me look.....

Shawnee you are it!!!  I will forward the email with the coupon to you right now!! Be sure and tell us what you treated yourself too! Be sure and let us know if they are good to work with too!!!!

Thanks for playing everyone!!!

Sketchbook Project

My friend Lisa, posted a link for this fun art project. You get to have your little moleskin book of art in a traveling show and then permanently housed at the Brooklyn Art Gallery. I decided to plop down a little cash and do THE SKETCHBOOK PROJECT as a way of relighting my creativity that has been on the back burner for far too long. 

I've had the book for several months now. I was alllllllll excited to get started, but I let stuff get in the way and now the book is due this weekend. Looks like I will begin a ''get creative'' marathon this week. :-)

The theme I got was (your name here). It took me forever to decide if I wanted to go literal or with a book about me. I choose: me! I got this to originally be blank, but what the heck!

My first two pages!!! I am: a reader!!! Some of the book titles maybe easy to figure out, others, you'd have to know the book or look them up!!  Only, like, 50 more pages to go!!!!!

My drawing/coloring skills have sadly fallen by the wayside since my costuming class. They got pretty good when I had to do them all the time for school....2 years ago.

  

Two of renderings for Dracula. I guess I was having a coat fetish at the time. It was ccccooollllldddddd. Will they win any awards? NNaaawwwwwww. Are they good for renderings? Yep. Our assignment was to work on Dracula and then do all the renderings in black and white. I had sooooooooo much fun!! Since an artist I am not, I took some online body shapes and added to them. That was one of the techniques we learned.....yes, it was beginning costuming. Yes, I was a total grade ho. Yes, I was as old as the teacher. Yes, 99.9% of the students were under 20 so I was a leper for a few weeks...then, Suzy Homemaker that I am, I brought cupcakes and helped some of them sew....leper no more!!

Wow, how did I end up here???  Squirrel!!!

Happy creating!!

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