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Showing posts from October, 2016

Harley

We said goodbye to him this weekend. I miss him a lot. Hunkered down in the window, snoozing in the sewing room, stalking heating vents, chasing his tail... the house feels weird and empty without him. Our other cat, Cinders, knows something's up, and she seems pretty unsettled. So am I. I'm setting up a memorial space in his sleeping spot in the sewing room, with his blankets and a toy and the ridiculous baby t-shirt the vet asked us to make him wear (which he hated). It had some patriotic baseball thing on the front, and I wish I could have snapped a picture of his expression when we first put it on him. What the hell, person? He was so funny -- the type of cat that took everything extremely seriously, until he didn't. Going through my photos, it's amazing how many of them are sewing-related. He was always there! He loved sitting on fabric and paper patterns (especially PDFs, as I was trying to tape them up), and watching me thread needles. (String, person. ...

V1510 progress, dyeing with purple basil, and other stuff

Updates! 1. I'm making slow progress on view A of V1510 . Slow because Harley the cat is still sick (his cancer is progressing, unfortunately), and this keeps happening: Me: Hey Harley, want to go work on the dress? Harley: I have a better idea. How about I curl up on your chest and go to sleep? This... ...or this? I like the dress so far, though. (I'm doing the tunic version, but it's long enough to be a dress on me.) And how did I not know that Sandra Betzina's instructions are fantastic? 2. I'm totally drooling over  Dries van Noten spring 2017 , especially this coat: I need this! Where can I find a giant floral print? 3. I dyed some fabric with purple basil. Did some cotton (including an overdye on a tansy/iron mix I wasn't crazy about), and then threw some wool and silk into the exhaust dyebath. I simmered each batch for several hours, then let it sit for 1 or 2 days. Result: two totally different colors. Plants, you are so weird....