Fabric, Jewelry, and Patterns...Oh my!

It's been an absurdly crazy week.  Like, really crazy.  First I dealt with that whole exam thing, but once that was over, I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing this project.  Literally, I rarely leave this basement sewing room, it's starting to become a sort of cavey black lagoon situation for me.  I've got food down here and everything...but that's really beside the point.

Measuring is about six jillion times more complicated and detailed than I ever thought it would be.  I'm not even kidding.  I took measurements I didn't even think existed (Bust Radius, Bust Span, and Bust Depth? All different things...who knew) and got super invasive on all my friends.  Really, they're ridiculously excellent people. (final list of fabulously cooperative modelfriends: Jill Karole, Sarah Cuneo, Jess Malat, Sydney Thames, and Adria Spivack--thanks guys!).  Anyway, pink measuring tape in hand, I managed to measure every single part of them, so the clothes should all fit perfectly.  No worries though, I'm working hard to design styles that are more or less a bit one-sizey.. that way buying won't be much of a hassle for anyone at all.  So that's that.

Once everyone was measured, I was able to figure out just how much fabric I would need to buy (I ended up with seven yards of one particularly versatile black textile...seven yards!).  Fabric stores are incredibly overwhelming for about a billion different reasons.  First off, they're really horrible for someone as easily distracted as I am.  There's fabric EVERYWHERE, and everything looks sooo cool and suddenly you want to make your own showgirl costume just because the neon pink sequins and purple leather are in front of your face.  Looking for a simple flowing fabric in a jewel tone you may or may not have made up becomes way less interesting.  Then there's the fact that everyone in fabric stores is very...focused. They know the headache these places can be and so they come in with a mission...most notably observing this practice is the shop owner and those who work there.  They couldn't care less about your imaginary color or your childlike fascination with black chiffon rosettes. It's more of a "how many yards? yeah, okay." relationship you're cultivating there.  Despite that, I worked my innocent newbie high schooler charms and got some awesome help...I found plumberry fabric, and it's now my signature color. I'm in love with it.  I got greatly cheap leather pieces, and that black chiffon rosette fabric? Bought that... it's gorgeous.  My basement cave is now a little hidden under masses of fabric, thread, and elastic strips.  I still don't even have everything I need.  I'm venturing to a few warehouses in the city this week to get the one fabric I couldn't find.  The ever-elusive dark green jersey.  Hmmm.

I really wanted to make jewelry.  I LOVE jewelry.  The problem there is that I really can't decide exactly what I want, but I've been planning.  The fabric wrapped geometrics are kinda losing the luster for me... instead I'm leaning towards chunky beads and odd-pieces-that-maybe-don't-belong-on-jewelry-but-I'm-putting-there-anyway.  I've been researching this idea and sketching out plans for it alllll weekend, and I'm getting myself to Michael's either today or tomorrow.  I just learned this really cool way to make rosettes out of yarn that I'm considering manipulating into a necklace.  It'll be an adventure, that's for sure.

Pattern-making is impossible and tedious and I've never liked it and that's really all I have to say about that.  Not really.  Unfortunately, patterns are a necessary evil.  You can't really just cut fabric and sew it into something without a pattern unless you're making a drawstring bag (I may or may not have made a sleeve for my kindle...).  My excellent Burda-hunting has allowed me to save some time in that  don't have to pull these patterns out of thin air (except for one top and a dress....), I can just mes with the burda patterns and make them what I want them to be.  It's nice to have a jumping-off point.

That's all for now.  Some more daily blogging in the future will prevent these massive posts I think...last week just left for very little computer time.  More soon!