High Quality Blogs: March 2011

Thursday 31 March 2011

Pakistani Fashion Clothes

Pakistani Fashion Show

Readers, believe me when I tell you that yesterday at this time I had never heard of a loop guard, let alone a loop guard screw. But life is about learning, friends, and if we're open to it, knowledge will come our way, no matter how arcane and (arguably) trivial.

Today's post will have primarily wonk appeal so, apologies. I should state immediately that the screw pictured above is not Singer Featherweight part #200145, the aforementioned loop guard screw (I'm sure some of you knew that already). But I couldn't find a good picture of #200145. Sometimes you need Troy Donahue but you have to settle for Tab Hunter -- or is it the other way around?

Long story short: I worked a bit on my Featherweight yesterday. Quick recap: I bought this machine on eBay and paid what I would consider a low-end price, though sadly not bargain basement. I've seen them at the flea market for somewhat less and considerably more. It didn't come with the accessory box but I did get an intact case, the original manual, and a nice vintage buttonholer with seven templates.

My last piece for BurdaStyle was all about how to buy a vintage sewing machine and I didn't follow my own advice. The eBay seller wrote "the light works and the machine sews." Well the light does work and the machine does sew -- sort of. I could have asked for a stitch sample but it was clear that the seller knew very little about the machine and I hoped the vagueness of the description would depress the bidding, which it did. It's a crap shoot as they say and I gave the seller positive feedback regardless. (BTW, the seller thought the machine was from 1934; it's from 1951 based on the serial number and indeed -- I just noticed this five minutes ago -- it has the Singer Centennial badge!)

The motor sounds great, and after significant oiling everything now runs smoothly and powerfully, but after a few stitches the thread jams. So yesterday I read online about Featherweight thread jams -- and read and read and read. The amount of information out there about this little machine is astounding!

Remember I mentioned needing to buy a small screwdriver to tighten the hook gib screw with? Well I did, and though I tightened it, the thread still jammed (I'd already checked the needle, thread, etc.).

One site suggested I remove and clean under the bobbin case base, pictured below, which I then did. (This is the piece that the bobbin case fits into.) It's all part of the larger hook assembly. Am I losing you?

With bobbin case base removed:

I then noticed that there was what looked like a screw hole visible as well as a loose plate beneath it on the same shaft. This loose plate I eventually identified as the loop guard. And wouldn't you know: the loop guard is supposed to be screwed on to the hook assembly. Can you see where it looks like there's a screw missing on the right? That's because there is a screw missing. (It's the smaller of the two holes.)

Here's the side view:

Wrapped around the shaft between the loop guard and the rest of the hook assembly were layers and layers of thread -- old, old thread, my friends.

First I pulled out a few strands of filament as fine as doll hair (which it could be for all I know).

Half an hour later I had removed all this:

Anyway, miracle or miracles, many websites sell this loop guard screw for just a few dollars and I ordered one. It should arrive next week sometime and then we'll take it from there!

As I was figuring all this out yesterday I kept sending emails to Rain with headings like "My Featherweight issue," "Last email, promise" and "REALLY the last email!" Obviously a man of few words, his (sole) response was "Sounds like you solved the problem, yeah?" Friends, is that what you think I wanted to hear? He's the sewing machine repair specialist! This is the problem with the internet, I think. With a little effort you can solve just about any technical problem yourself; I hate that.

Here's a bonus pic of the entire hook assembly for you Featherweight fetishists. Pretty hot, huh?

Lest you think I spent the entire day marinating in sewing machine oil, I actually got some sewing done, though not as much as I'd hoped to.

I started on the jacket and readers, it's going to be so cute, though obviously not something you'd wear over a tee shirt.

I also finished the kimono sleeves on the bodice with bias I cut myself.

Such a nice finish. I'll slip stitch those down later on.

Friends, we're nearly out of time. Thank you for all your wonderful Featherweight-related tips yesterday. The stinky, sneeze-inducing carrying case is on the balcony and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. In a city apartment there's really no place to store moldy things and I already have all that old luggage smelling up the bedroom. I will probably never even use that case and I don't really see myself stripping it down, fumigating it, potpourri-ing it or anything of that ilk. Then again, yesterday I'd never heard of a loop guard screw.

If I had to do over I'd pay less for a machine without a case (most of the old ones have the stink issue, apparently) and get one of those nice new tote bags for it. Live and learn!

TOKIBAT!

Have a great day, everybody!

P.S. - You can read my latest BurdaStyle piece here; comments are always welcome!

Angelina jolie

Angelina Jolie biography

Date of Birth
4 June 1975, Los Angeles, California, USA

Birth Name
Angelina Jolie Voight

Nickname
Angie
Catwoman
Ange
AJ

Height
5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Biography

Growing up in Los Angeles, Jolie was no stranger to the film industry, being the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight. She later trained and performed at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she was seen in several stage productions.

She worked as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles, and has also appeared in music videos for such artists as Meat Loaf, Lenny Kravitz, Antonello Venditti and The Lemonheads. In addition, she has acted in five student films for the USC School of Cinema, all directed by her brother, James Haven.
IMDb Mini Biography By: finityj

Mini Biography

Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning actress who has become popular by taking on the title role in the "Lara Croft" series of blockbuster movies. Off-screen, Jolie has become prominently involved in international charity projects, especially those involving refugees. She often appears on many "most beautiful women" lists, and she has a personal life that is avidly covered by the tabloid press.

In her earliest years, Angelina began absorbing the acting craft from her parents - her father is the Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and her mother is Marcheline Bertrand, who had studied with Lee Strasberg. At age 11, Angelina began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She undertook some film studies at New York University and later joined the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. At age 16, she took up a career in modeling and appeared in some music videos. Her exotic good looks may derive from her mixed ancestry which is Czech, French-Canadian, Iroquois and English.

In the mid-1990s, Jolie appeared in various small films where she got good notices, including Hackers (1995) and Foxfire (1996). Her critical acclaim increased when she played strong roles in the made-for-TV movies True Women (1997) (TV), and in George Wallace (1997) (TV) which won her a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination. Jolie's acclaim increased even further when she played the lead role in the HBO production Gia (1998) (TV). This was the true life story of supermodel Gia Carangi, a sensitive wild child who was both brazen and needy and who had a difficult time handling professional success and the deaths of people who were close to her. Carangi became involved with drugs and because of her needle-using habits she became, at the tender age of 26, one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS. Jolie's performance in Gia (1998) (TV) again garnered a Golden Globe award and another Emmy nomination, and she additionally earned a SAG Award.

Angelina got a major break in 1999 when she won a leading role in the successful feature The Bone Collector (1999), starring alongside Denzel Washington. In that same year, Jolie gave a tour de force performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999) playing opposite Winona Ryder. The movie was a true story of women who spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Jolie's role was reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), the role which won Nicholson his first Oscar. Unlike "Cuckoo", "Girl" was a small film that received mixed reviews and barely made money at the box office. But when it came time to give out awards, Jolie won the triple crown -- "Girl" propelled her to win the Golden Globe, the SAG Award and the Academy Award for best leading actress in a supporting role.

With her new-found prominence, Jolie began to get in-depth attention from the press. Numerous aspects of her controversial personal life became news. At her wedding to her Hackers (1995) co-star Jonny Lee Miller, she had displayed her husband's name on the back of her shirt painted in her own blood. Jolie and Miller divorced and in 2000 she married her Pushing Tin (1999) co-star Billy Bob Thornton. Jolie had become the fifth wife of a man twenty years her senior. During her marriage to Thornton, the spouses each wore a vial of the other's blood around their necks. That marriage came apart in 2002 and ended in divorce. In addition, Jolie was estranged from her famous father, Jon Voight.

In 2000, Jolie was asked to star in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). At first, she expressed disinterest, but then decided that the required training for the athletic role was intriguing. The Croft character was drawn from a popular video game. Lara Croft was a female cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond. When the film was released, critics were unimpressed with the final product, but critical acclaim wasn't the point of the movie. The public paid $275 million for theater tickets to see a buffed up Jolie portray the adventuresome Lara Croft. Jolie's father Jon Voight appeared in "Croft", and during filming there was a brief rapprochement between father and daughter.

One of the Croft movie's filming locations was Cambodia. While there, Jolie witnessed the natural beauty, culture and poverty of that country. She considered this an eye opening experience, and so began the humanitarian chapter of her life. Jolie began visiting refugee camps around the world and came to be formally appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some of her experiences were written and published in her popular book "Notes from My Travels" whose profits go to UNHCR.

Jolie has stated that she now plans to spend most of her time in humanitarian efforts, to be financed by her actress salary. She devotes one third of her income to savings, one third to living expenses and one third to charity. In 2002, Angelina adopted a Cambodian refugee boy named Maddox and in 2005 adopted an Ethiopian refugee girl named Zahara. Jolie's dramatic feature film Beyond Borders (2003/I) parallels some of her real life humanitarian experiences although, despite the inclusion of a romance between two westerners, many of the movie's images were too depressingly realistic -- the film was not popular among critics or at the box office.

In 2004, Jolie began filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) with co-star Brad Pitt. The film became a major box office success. There were rumors that Pitt and Jolie had an affair while filming "Smith". Jolie insisted that because her mother had been hurt by adultery, she herself could never participate in an affair with a married man, therefore there had been no affair with Pitt at that time. Nonetheless, Pitt separated from his wife Jennifer Aniston in January 2005 and, in the months that followed, he was frequently seen in public with Jolie, apparently as a couple. Pitt's divorce was finalized later in 2005.

Jolie and Pitt announced in early 2006 that they would have a child together, and Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh that May. They also adopted a three-year-old Vietnamese boy named Pax. The couple continues to pursue movie and humanitarian projects.

Angelina jolie

Angelina jolie

Angelina Jolie

Beautiful Angelina Jolie

Thursday 31 March 2011

Pakistani Fashion Clothes

Pakistani Fashion Show

For Want of a Screw...

Angelina jolie