Scarf

Knit a scarf, long with stripes running the length in gray and purples. Have to finish the ends, thinking about using lace and feathers and leather and ribbon, but not sure yet. Though it only took a couple of hours to knit, I'm quite pleased with how the body of the scarf turned out.

Sometimes I forget how much I love yarn. There is something soothing about the feel of the materials in your hand and creating a three dimensional object out of a string and the math behind the knitting and reading the yarn; I love it all. Knitting is relaxing and calming and beautiful. Sometimes I feel like I'm meditating while knitting. Crochet is lovely as well, but there is too much conscious thought in reading the fabric (that's where you look at the fabric and figure out where to put the hook next and what part of the pattern happens next, while in knitting it's not as necessary unless making lace or something else quite complex) to allow for that meditative feeling.

Deconstruction

Today I disassembled a shirt. I love deconstructing things, teehee, it makes me so happy. Maybe I should find someone who can make things from what I take apart so I can keep doing my favorite part of deconstruction fashion (that would be the cutting). My process thus car has involved cutting the collar and cuffs off of a men's dress shirt that I found at the Goodwill down the street from my home (after washing it first), then I cut apart the garment at the seams, discarding the seams themselves. It only took about 20-30 minutes to break down the garment into its constituent parts.

Now, I just have to find a non-stretchy skirt that I want to use as a pattern so I can reassemble the parts into something new and crazy. Do I derive too much pleasure from taking something that was intended for an office atmosphere and turning it into something alternative and creative and wild? I don't think so, but perhaps it is just my deep-seated loathing of the corporate world with its business casual dress code that has helped me justify my joy in tearing down the cubicle walls through fashion and other creative endeavors. Either that, or I'm crazy. I will keep you apprised of the progress of the shirt to skirt deconstruction project.

Girls day out

Mother Octopus by Erin J. King

Today I went shopping with my two lovely female housemates for supplies. Goodwill is an excellent source of items that are fantastic for deconstructing and altering to make amazing things. Lowe's leaves me feeling like a kid in a candy store because of all the things I want. Went down the aisles pointing at things that I want, but don't really need, and things that I can't really afford, jumping up and down.

*Sigh* Can't I be independently wealthy and just pick out everything I want and take it home? That would be nice. Instead I spent more than I meant to, but have some fun projects that I plan to work on and leaves me feeling motivated and excited, though a bit lighter in the wallet.

Projects:
- a men's striped button down shirt that I'm going to turn into a skirt
- a pillow that I'm going to rework with feathers
- a large number of items to improve the atmosphere of the bathroom to sport a jungle theme
- frames so I can finally mount some artwork I purchased from artist Erin J. King and Matt D.
- a bunch of brass & copper nails due to my inspiration from my favorite book Altered Curiosities to embellish other projects to make them even more awesome
- a wooden candle holder to cut and screw between two plastic plates to create tiered platters for display storage on my vanity

I feel so inspired, yet exhausted and think that I will have to wait until tomorrow to get started on all of my projects.

President Abraham Lincoln Riding A Dinosaur by Matt D.

Ok, so I got a bit more motivated and framed one print (the Mother Octopus one, shown above) and have to make a mat-board for the other print (the Abraham Lincoln Riding A Dinosaur one, shown at right), due to fact that the second frame came with the wrong size mat-board for the piece I have. Guess that Lincoln with have to wait in my closet until I can remember where I put my Exacto knife and right angle ruler. Here is a good video on how to make your own mat-board to frame prints in random frames you find at second hand stores, just like your good pal Jessie Night.

Tomorrow I plan to head over to the fabric store and buy feather tape so I can have a mass of feathers on the pillow I'm reworking. Saw a very pretty pillow at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, that I thought was cool, but far too small and not exactly what I wanted, so now I'm doing it how I want. And isn't doing things your way what Art is all about? Maybe I'll do another post about the difference between Art and art some time, we'll see if I feel like tackling that rant any time soon.

Pants

There was a box full of free stuff last night (I love free, it is my favorite price) and in it was a pair of amazing pajama pants. Unfortunately, the pajama pants are for a size 56 waist and I happen to wear a 34. The cloth was so fantastic that I decided that I would try my hand at remaking them to fit me. The cloth is silky on the outside and like flannel cotton on the inside with a pattern of red and dark red stripes going vertically. Since the stripes on the outside are perfectly aligned, I decided that changing the inside seam was the way to go, which also allows me to raise the crotch height from half way to my knees to my actual crotch.

I started by culling along the seam from the front to the back and along the inseam. Next I started pinning it around me to get a custom fit. That was when I realized that putting in pins where I can't see is quite difficult. After a few moments of thought, I decided to make a body double. This was done by covering my bare skin in saran wrap and then covering the saran wrap in clear packing tape. Doing this on your own is quite difficult, but luckily my boyfriend was there ... to watch and laugh without helping at all. Oh well. Once I had the double cast from my belly button to my knees, I drew a line down my sides where I thought the pants seam should approximately go and my underwear line so that the pants wouldn't be too low. Then I cut off the double and taped it back together (my guidelines were quite helpful in lining everything back up).

I started pinning the cloth to the dummy and getting the fit just right. After pinning everything to the dummy, I realized that I needed to take everything off of the dummy to sew it and proceeded to use the already placed pins as a guide to placing pins that only joined cloth to cloth. Once the piece was free of the dummy, I took it off and made adjustments and put it back on and made more adjustments. Now I have the whole thing almost all pinned together, except that I'm not sure what to do about the legs as the original pants had a taper and the way they are progressing will have the inseam curving around to my shins. I have also done a bit of research on how pants are constructed by examining other pants, and have come to the conclusion that I should do the crotch seams first and the inseams after. For the closure, I have decided to have the front lace up with a flap behind the lacing that buttons on the inside. I'm hoping to start sewing tomorrow.