Crappy Pictures:

[mightyjesse]

Yay!

Went to eithni's house last night for Needle Arts and devikat's Birthday last night and had a pretty good time. We were *supposed* to bring tea to the party, but I am lazy, don't drink tea, and live a little too close to the local liquor store... So guess what *my* contribution to the party was?!

That's right. As a well practiced enabler and coffee drinker, I brought coffee with Irish Cream, and my birthday present to devikat was a bottle of Pama, pomegranite liqueur. (I'd never heard of it before devikat requested it, but the bottle sure was pretty. eithni let me taste some out of her stash, and I have to admit it was *quite* tasty. I'm not normally one to go after the fruity liqueurs, but things can change...)

And devikat made these yummy little egg salad treats which were not bad for my diet, so I had some of those for second dinner and did not feel bad at all. (My water intake was low, but I shall endeavor to correct that today.)

eithni helped me re-do a sleeve pattern for my dress, and I helped her cut about a zillion yards of linen for distribution at fighter practice tonight. (Folding 20 yards of linen is a work out in and of itself. I think we cut up well over 150 yards last night.) We coined the term "linen sprints" while measuring out the fabric. Since the linen was on a roll, we put down a tape marker at 10 yards, and then I held the spool and eithni would grab the end of the fabric and sprint to the 10 yard line, then I would cut and we would fold and label. We had it down to a science by the time I left last night, but man I have to say... Being the Barony's Linen Dealer requires quite a bit of time and organization! I'm pleased we have one to keep all our stashes supplied, but I sure am glad that it ain't my job. I am neither that organized, nor that dedicated to any one subject. :-P

Finally, as promised, I have some crappy pictures of my gothic fitted dress in process. I need to do all the buttons and button holes, and add in the gores, yet. I have discovered that if I put in enough overlap in the front to button the gown, rather than lacing it, the gown fits *perfectly* in the body without any alterations. There is a little problem with wrinkling in the upper chest/sleeve area, and I'm not sure how to fix it, but I'm sure there will be someone at Boar's Head to help me figure out what I did wrong. (I think it may just be a matter of tightening up the shoulders and re-setting the sleeves, but I'm not certain. It may also be the fact that I haven't yet clipped the seams of the arm holes, but I don't want to do that until I'm sure that I don't need to re-set the sleeves again...) It's not so bad that I won't be able to wear the dress, so I'll classify the problem as *minor*.



I would have gotten a little further with my dress last night had I not had a *totally* stupid moment and basted the sleeves into the dress inside-out. Fortunately, I was smart enough to *baste* first. (I'm apparently, not all *that* bad a seamstress if I start sewing more than 4 hours before the event...) So I had to rip all that out and put them back in again. This took me until 1:00 in the morning, so there was no time to cut out the gores. Tonight, I'm hoping to go by Joanne Fabric and pick up about a zillion buttons, and start working on all the dang button holes that this thing is going to require. Making button holes seems like an ideal activity to work on during fighter practice.


(This picture is so crappy that you can barely see that Maggie helped me take the picture 8 or 9 times because she was *very* interested in all the linen bits that were hanging off of me. I finally ended up having to pat her head reassuringly while taking the picture because otherwise she would insist on being in the dress with me.... As I mentioned, the gores haven't been cut or sewn in yet, and Maggie is convinced that those openings in the dress are dog entrances and exits in some kind of huge linen dog jungle gym...)

Tomorrow night, Friediness will be home while I'm *awake* and maybe he can help me take some *visible* pictures of the dress... Then maybe you lot will be able to see well enough to help me troubleshoot the arm-hole pulling/creasing problems I'm having. ;-)

And now I'm off to a long day of Meeting Hell. See yinz all at fighter practice!

Comments

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

I'm continue to be surprised by how puppy-ish Maggie is despite her size. She is a *very* cuddly MaggieMu and wants to be in CONSTANT CONTACT with her people. She firmly believes that she is a lapdog. Mama and Jasmine are content to lay on the couch next to me with their "good end" butted up against me (yes, the pun is intentional), but Maggie *must* have her front half draped over my thigh... Which is adorable, but not so good if I'm trying to knit or work on my laptop...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The good thing about a lapdog-sized dog is that when she decides she is going to be a lapdog, I can oblige without breaking my office chair. The bad thing is that she is extremely determined about Helping Me Write. Very, very, very determined. And she would really rather that I sat still rather than making all the clicky noises. So she will drape her head over my wrist, press down as hard as she can, and sigh in the most put-upon fashion, as if to say, God. Monkeys. I just can't believe them sometimes.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes... I know that sigh well. Jasmine hasn't *quite* mastered it, but she has the talent...

Mama, on the other hand, owns that sigh. Particularly if you're at all interested in getting her out of a warm bed before she absolutely cannot wait any longer to go to the bathroom.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ista does not sigh in that last case. She just goes limp and looks at you: Monkey, you are stupid, stupid, stupid. And mean. And stupid.