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May 29, 2007
New summer skirt!
Today I payed a visit to the very dangerous Valley Fabrics and was instantly overwhelmed by all their beautiful stuff. I went with a couple of projects in mind: a skirt and a little something I'm hoping to make for Dandie in the Underworld when Rosa and Marisa get it up and running.
I made the skirt this afternoon, using the pattern in Sew U. I was reading the section on skirts and there is a suggestion for how to adapt the pattern to use an elastic or drawstring waist instead of a zipper. I decided to go for the elastic, since I'm a little sick of sewing in zippers. But there was one little problem...
The book says that, to make the elastic waist, all you need to do is not sew up the darts, to make it a little wider. I got the skirt all sewn together and realized that there was clearly going to be trouble. There was no way the skirt's skinny waist was going on over my hips as required. So, I chopped it off at a more reasonable width. It made the skirt much shorter, maybe shorter than I was going to make it originally, but I think it ended up being a cute, summer skirt.
Next time, I'll definitely adjust the width at the waistline before cutting, since I plan to make this pattern again, and continue to avoid zippers sometimes.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2007
finished denim skirt: first summer project
This morning I decided to finish summer project #1 and sew up my new skirt made from some old jeans. While I was still writing my paper a few days ago, I took a break to rip out the seams of the pants, cut them, and pin everything together. It only took an hour or so, so I didn't need to feel too guilty about procrastinating.
My initial pinning was pretty good, but I had to adjust when I tried it on to check it out. The panel in the front stuck out funny, so I had to re-pin that part while wearing it. Tricky! This might be a project better done with someone else to help. Here is the end result:
Not bad, eh?
I had originally put another panel in the back there, but it was *way more complicated* to re-pin that part, so I went with what you see. I think it works.
When I first started thinking about this project as an alternative to buying a new skirt, these instructions from not martha were very helpful and stuck with me.
Yay! What's next, I wonder...?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2007
the craftiness is starting
My last paper of the semester has been written.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2007
This is what Spanish at UMass can get you.
It's been a while since I checked in with my old intern, Brian Rogers, at themoves.org. There are a couple new videos and songs up there, which was nice to see. Thanks to YouTube, here's a little reminder of how good their videos are:
Posted by kelseyfrost at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2007
Olive and Orly
I would like to say that my sister used to make fun of me for how much I liked my cats and how much I talked about them. I, however, never devoted an entire blog to them. (They just get an occasional post, when they really misbehave.) (She will say it's all Brian's doing.)
Well, they are funny....
Posted by kelseyfrost at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2007
Socializing for the anti-social? I definitely am sort of anti-social...
My sister finally convinced me to sign up for MySpace last night, while Spanish for Hitchhiking practice robbed us of our significant others. I feel a little weird, sitting on the internet and asking my friends to be friends with me... I think I'm up to six now. Of course, two of them are Brian.
I'm trying to get Dave to join me there, but does this look like a man who needs internet friends?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2007
Oh, I've got plans.
I have all sorts of crafty undertakings planned for after the semester ends. Of course, I feel like I'm actually doing very little to get myself to that point... (That's not entirely true... I'm home working on a paper instead of out at the Eagles Club. Can't you see I'm working?)
For one thing, I've stocked up on a few Built by You patterns from Built by Wendy. As you have heard, but not seen, I made a pair of pants based on the pattern in her "Sew U" book and they are very cute.
I just bought this other pattern for different pants:
As well as this dress pattern:
Not to mention all the skirts I plan on making from "Sew U" and a nascent thought about turning some old jeans into a skirt, but trying not to do it in a hippie way. I'd like to successfully make a denim pencil skirt or a-line skirt out of some dark denim Gap jeans I don't wear too much anymore.
See how many things I will have to help me avoid writing my thesis?
Posted by kelseyfrost at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)
May 01, 2007
One of many reasons I'd like to visit Paris right now...
I'm pretty sure I need a tattoo from Lionel of Out of Step Tattoos. Needled linked to his website a couple of weeks ago and I can't stop going back and looking at his tattoo gallery. I love so very many of the tattoos he's created and would love to have one.
Unfortunately, being a graduate student hasn't started to pay any better, and I've yet to find a conference in Paris on Medieval Spanish Literature, so... I guess I might be waiting a while for this one. My only other hope would be to convince Off the Map to maybe get Lionel over here.
Posted by kelseyfrost at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
One of many reasons I'd like to visit Spain right now...
My favorite store:
Posted by kelseyfrost at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)