Posts Tagged ‘diy’

On the street: High-waisted skirt

February 24th, 2009
15 Comments

I’m in a sewing craze right now. Seriously, I’m day dreaming in patterns, and I keep thinking up ideas for outfits for Penelope and other little girls [I have a few pregnant friends]. I’ve got to get cracking before my motivation wanes. Last Friday when I was feeling particularly ambitious, I sewed a skirt! I can’t claim the pattern my own; it’s been modified from Simplicity’s 3673 1950’s retro dress pattern.

High waisted skirt back

I can’t express how much I love this skirt. It fits me PERFECTLY, it’s slimming [at least I think so] and it’s amazingly comfortable. This is the best sewing I’ve done in my life. Period. End. I should mention, however, it has one little problem: I can’t squeeze into it from the top. I have to unzip and shimmy into it from the bottom. I should have put in a longer zipper. OH well. It still works.

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The original pattern has a very high waistline and darts in the front [I hate front darts, they never seem to look right]. I nixed the front darts and made puckers in the back instead [adding a little umph to the blegs]. I also sinched up the hips to follow my hips a little better. Now I’m looking for any excuse to wear this little number out. Chris, you wanna ask me out on a date?

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P.S. I’m totally addicted to the Sartorialist right now. I love that blog.

Eventful Weekend

October 13th, 2008
4 Comments

Besides being glued to the computer because of this and that, and despite Chris having to go into work, we had a great weekend. Chris has been searching high and low for an Oxy-acetylene torch, and we found one last week! Seriously, I love Craigslist. We’ve both been anxiously waiting for Saturday so we can finally bust the thing out.

At first I was really jumpy, it’s been a while since I’ve fired one up (like 3 years), so I didn’t want to do anything wrong and I have no desire to blow up. Our practice braising session was a little rocky at first, I was thinking you set the flame as high as you would for welding, NOT SO! Your flame doesn’t need to be nearly as hot in order to braise effectively. It’s very similar to soldering.

We tested our braising skills on copper (pretty cheap), and got some really colorful results. We have to get a lot better before Chris starts braising on his steel frame, but I’m glad that no longer feel we’re in way over our heads.

Chris was nice enough to let me give it a try.

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