sewing

Need My Sewing Fix

I swear to God. It?s like a fucking addiction.

I spent fifteen minutes of my 20-minute break today sketching out ideas for a new totoro hat design.

Part of me is like, didn?t you want to try making those s?mores candles tonight? or practice your mellophone? and part of me is like, OMG I might have the answer to the standee-up ears!

Seriously, though—now that I?m actually fabricating hats, coming up with ideas, and being generally creative, I can understand why it?s impossible to find actual character hat patterns online. Especially since so many people sell their hats for a profit. It?s kind of like with soy candles: it?s impossible to find all the little tips and tricks all in one place, just because individual candlemakers (myself included) are so proud of having figured it out themselves, and they?ll be damned if they?ll share their hard work with budding candlists for free.

I know that, once I get this totoro hat to look just right, I ain?t planning on posting a pattern. Buy one and seam-rip it if you really want to know the secret of the totoro hat. 😉

But that might be a while…

the ongoing saga of my job 3 Comments

Shitty Mood

OMG, I am in such a shitty mood this morning. I only got six hours of sleep last night, thanks to staying up waaaay too late to work on my Totoro hat. My alarm woke me out of a *very* sound sleep this morning, which never does good things for my mood, anyway. I hit snooze, and I swear it went off two minutes later instead of nine. 😛 Then, Mei decided it was time to bang the kitchen cupboards for a while, at which point I got up, threatened the cat with a swift kick in her general direction, and did my morning thing.

Managed to leave the house early, per last night?s suggestion from Stan Stachak, and got to work at five till eight, which was good (compared with my usual 8:03am). The snow wasn?t all that bad this morning—only a dusting, instead of the 1-3″ we were supposed to get overnight. It?s really coming down now, though, and that three inches is supposed to accumulate by the time I leave work today. (Also not improving my mood.) Oh, and I managed to leave my gloves and scarf at home, which added to my joy as I walked in to work from the back parking lot, and even as I contemplate going back out to the car this evening after work.

Add on top of that a couple stupid misunderstandings at work (in which I was right, of course, and was actually acknowledged as such in the end), and I?m just uber-grouchy and tired and grrr. I?m not necessarily having a shitty day; I?m just in a shitty mood. And, no, I don?t think caffeine or sugar would help, so I?m not even tempted to go get a Frappuccino for my bunghole.

(BTW, Sheryl—I ended up putting in the Star Trek IV DVD while I fabricated my second Totoro hat last night, complete with subtitled text commentary. w00t!)

otaku, sewing 2 Comments

Totoro Hat, Take Two

Attempt #2 at a Totoro hat I’d be proud to wear to the Animarathon in April. Much closer this time. I made the hat *too* big this time, instead of not big enough, so I had to adjust the hems and do some trimming—but, hopefully, I was left with a hat that would suffice for Aaron. I also increased the size of the hatband hem width and the ears, and decreased the size of Totoro’s eyes and nose.

I’m afraid I might have to try out some other style of a more form-fitting hat, as having a loosely-fitting hat isn’t going to work with those pesky ears. Maybe you can’t tell in the photos, but they really like to flop forward and/or backward a lot, and not stay standing up. Rigid, sure, no problem, but upright? Not so much.

Oh, yeah, and I still need to add whiskers. Sticky-outie whiskers, not sewn-on whiskers.

This is fun. Addictive. I *heart* fleece remnants at Hancock Fabrics.

Edit: Forgot to mention one thing. When one is cutting fabric on one’s kitchen table, it would behoove a person to make sure that the measuring tape is not unwound and laying about in close proximity to the path of the cutting implement. Otherwise, one may find oneself reattaching the end of one’s vinyl measuring tape, said tape having been severed at the three-inch mark.

otaku, sewing 6 Comments

Totoro Hat!

Yay! My very first Totoro hat is complete. Not bad for a first try… Next time, I’ll cut the fleece bigger to allow for seam allowances, and try to figure out how to sew the face on with the machine, instead of by hand. (My practice circles on the machine didn’t turn out too well…) Maybe make the eyes a little smaller, and the ears a little bigger.

But, for now, I’m happy. Yay, Totoro hat! I can sew… sort of. 🙂

ruminations 2 Comments

Dressing Up

Watching Dan prepare for his Doctoral audition last night and this morning made me realize: I have no reason to be “professional” these days. I mean, sure, my workplace is quasi-professional, but our dress code is business casual (which, for me, basically means no jeans, sweats, t-shirts, or sneakers: almost anything else goes). We’re not the kind of professional workplace where it’s required to put on airs and/or a suit.

I no longer perform in concerts, like choir or band or wind ensemble or whatnot, so I have no reason or opportunity to put on my best black dress and some makeup—stage makeup, even, sans lipstick for wind instruments—and stride out to swells of applause, holding my head high and aloof. I don’t even go to church anymore, so I don’t put on my pantyhose and one of my nicest outfits (with a skirt or dress, of course) and do my hair and makeup and wear perfume, and shake everyone’s hand and smile and act reverent when appropriate.

I suppose I could dress up just because, but it doesn’t have the allure that a special (or not-so-special) occasion does. When Aaron and I go out to eat anymore, even someplace “nice” like Red Lobster or Dolly & Joe’s (mom-and-pop place, great prime rib), the odds are 50/50 whether we’ll just go in jeans, anyway.

I don’t even *own* that many seriously “nice” clothes anymore. In the years between my old, pre-obese weight and my current non-obese weight, I sloughed off several sizes’ worth of “nice” clothes that I couldn’t fit into anymore, or that I just got tired of. All my poet’s blouses, all my starchy white oxford-esque blouses, most of my “good” skirts, blah blah blah. As for Aaron, I know he’s got blazers, but doubt if he even owns a decent tie, and I’m not sure if he has any “dress” shoes. Not like either of us really have any reason to own said formal attire.

I used to be very elitist about certain things. I felt totally at home in formal wear—at least, concert-going or church-going formal wear, anyway. I’ve changed so much since then; sometimes I feel like I’m not even that same person who played first-chair clarinet or sang in the chamber choir or felt naked leaving the house without lipstick. Was that me? Not really… not the “me” I know now. Now I’m perfectly content going makeup-less, and business casual is as dressy as I get. And I’m OK with that.