Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day !


Current Mood : Sleepy




I can now cross ‘see a live ballet performance’ off the Life Goal list ! It’s amazing how much I’ve seen in my life – operas, Passion Plays, red light districts, holy relic processionals, ancient temples, WPA markers in sidewalks a few miles away – but I’d never seen a live ballet before. It was amazing ! At some points of the show, you couldn’t hear the dancers’ feet hit the floor at all, at others it was like snow tapping your windowpanes, and at another, it was like a sudden performance of Stomp. It really was amazing, and will probably manifest in my sewing. I keep wanting to make ruffly long skirts and those lace-up waist sashes. With miles of coordinating ribbons !


Dinner was nice, too – I had a place card with my name (spelled correctly !) waiting for me, which I slipped into my purse as a souvenir. I noticed most of my fellow feminine diners did the same. There was a live jazz combo and a singer, too. Dinner was… kind of reminded me of some weddings I went to, when the food was lovely to look at. The cheesecake was delicious ! It was all very elegant and romantic, and I think everyone enjoyed the evening. We sure did !


Meanwhile, Ginger-kitty is still recuperating, but she’s been eating and shucking off her soft ‘cone of shame’ collar every chance she gets, so I think she’s on the mend. She’s about to drive me crazy, meowing to go outside, though. I feel for her, there’s probably a cat community around here worried about her, but until her stitches are out, no way.


And I think I’ve solved why my back closures – even with improved hand-stitched snaps and better machine-sewn Velcro ™ - look so consistently bad. I think I’ve been taking out an extra ¼” seam allowance, which leads to a pucker in the back. D’oh ! Why didn’t I realize that before ! Well, most of the time, the outfit still fit when I did that. What’s been happening is, I folded the back closure over before sewing on the hook side of the Velcro – for more stability, ya know ? But that just takes out extra fabric that really wasn’t called for. Most patterns don’t call for a fold-over in the back unless it’s a facing. It still seems odd to sew the Velcro to just one thickness of fabric, but when I look at Barbie Mattel-mades, yes, that’s exactly how it’s done. So I’ll probably start cheap-serging the back raw edges, for an extra bit of density, but my back closures should lose the pucker-pleat very soon. Wish me luck with the first experiment ! 

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