Oh, what a beautiful (Monday) mornin'

"There's a bright golden haze on the skyline, there's a bright golden haze on the skyline..." 

Happy Monday, everybody!  Hope you've had your morning coffee and are feeling chipper and cubicle-ready.

What a week it's been, huh?  I'm not talking about health care legislation or nuclear disarmament, I mean all that frenzied fabric shopping!  You'll have to wait till tomorrow to hear about yesterday's shopping adventures with the notorious Johanna, but rest assured we unearthed some treasures -- and re-buried them.

Another week gone by in a flash.  Where does the time go?  Am I the only person who can't remember what happened without referring back to his blog?

OK, now I recall:

1) Although I'd talked about making pants, I never got around to it.  Instead, I made the infamous sheet-of-shame shirt above.  I want to thank the dozens of you who sent in stain-removal tips.  Some were original and some were no doubt lifted piecemeal from "Heloise's Helpful Hints" but they were appreciated nonetheless!  I think I may just have to burn the shirt to be totally safe.  Oh, well.

2)  Some wonderful new patterns entered my life.  I haven't received the Do-Re-Mi number yet, but I did get my 80's evening gown, as well as these treasures:

I am particularly excited about the 1941 women's suit above, which I think should look smashing with this hat.  The pajamas are cool too, especially the blue striped ones.

3) I did a LOT of vicarious fabric shopping.  You already know about Friday's lunch with the Bloggettes, but I'd also been shopping two days earlier with an old elementary school friend I reconnected with via Facebook (I forgot to tell you about her; forgive me, dear readers) as well as yesterday's expedition with the Whirling Dervish of Queens, Johanna.

Now on to the week to come:

1) I want to buy fabric for the 1941 ensemble pictured above.  I've been in a 40s mood lately; who knows why.  I think a nice conservative rayon would work and fit the period, PLUS there's a rayon sale at one of my fabric dives in midtown.

2) I still want to make pants.  I've heard wonderful things about David Coffin's pants-making book, and I may bite the proverbial bullet and buy myself a copy.  Do you know it?

3) It's time to streamline my stash.  I'm one of those people who save every last fabric scrap from their sewing projects thinking, "Oh, I'll use this to practice on..." but this stuff accumulates FAST.  It's time to fill a bag and take it to the thrift store. 

Now.....what's been going on in your world?

LOOK what Amber recently finished!

She combined two patterns to make it; it's a long story -- visit her blog for details.  I think it's fab and Cathy -- whose purple passion knows no bounds -- is over the moon about it.

In no particular order:

Phoebe: the Colette dress you muslined: we need an update!  Gertie: Isn't it time you brought that "background dress" into the foreground?  Saintpudalia: How are the Badgley Mischka trousers coming along? Cupcake Goddess: Did you finish the spring dress yet?  Jenny: Have you decided on your next project?  Keep us posted!

I know you're expecting a dressing down from me, friends, but I am actually very proud of all of you, deadbeats included.  Sometimes even with the best of intentions we do get sidetracked by coastal flooding, earthquakes, and nuclear meltdowns -- as we should.  We can't sew well if we're worried about our very survival. 

That's when we need to turn on our favorite Easy Listening station, put our feet up, and drink a piping hot cup of something delicious -- the more chemicals, the better:





Have a great day everyone!

Chic Shirt Former Sheet of Shame!

 

Who would believe that just three days ago this garment was a discarded bed linen bearing the traces of unmentionable body fluids?

Quick: squint your eyes -- which is me and which is David Beckham?



 

(It's no wonder we're so often mistaken for one another!)

For those who are joining our story already in progress, you can fill in the blanks here and here.

From the humblest of humble origins -- just one step from the dump -- this shirt has already been out on the town with the famous Bloggettes, albeit sans cuffs.  I may also wear it today on a Lower East Side fabric hunt with my friend and fellow vintage sewing machine hoarder, the notorious Johanna.

Rest assured this garment is going to be laundered soon, preceded no doubt by a long Oxi Clean soak.  Only after reading your comments on Friday did I realize I may have already exposed myself to some scary dermatological conditions about which I was completely naive.  Please pray for me and my complexion.

I share the following photos with you not to boast, my friends, but rather to shore up a fragile ego.

Isn't this a pretty sleeve placket?



And how about this back pleat?



Honestly, I love this club collar thing.



This is how I'd intended to look on Friday.



I definitely want to make more of these shirts, which are so much snazzier than regular collared shirts, imo.

You can scroll through a whole album of me making this shirt here.  Maybe over coffee.

BTW, if that tie looks familiar, it's because it's the same one I wore 25 years ago to my brother's medical school graduation documented here.   (And to think they say if you wore it the first time around you're too old to wear it the second time around!)



Happy Sunday, everyone! 

(See you bright and early on the morrow.)

Meet the Bloggettes!

Yesterday I was thrilled to have lunch with those scribbling-and-sewing sweethearts, the Bloggettes!

Meet Taffy!



Marmalade!



Lycra!



And Chicklet!



Aren't they adorable, folks?  And they all have great clothes they've sewn themselves and blogged about!

Originally planned as a pow wow to strategize blogosphere domination, our afternoon together ended up being so much more.

First, we had a delicious lunch at Crisp @ 110 West 40th St.  Fabulous falafel, highly recommended!



Then we shopped -- work that hat, Lycra!



Then we posed:



-- again and again and again (was I not born for this fabric?).



After only a few hours, it was as if the Bloggettes and I had known each other all our lives, as we finished each other's sentences and shared our deepest, darkest secrets.  What is it about blogging about sewing that erases all boundaries in an instant?  It couldn't be healthy.

Anyway, being the tightwad disciplined shopper I am, I resisted the yards upon yards of fabric at Paron's, Metro Textiles, and Spandex House.  As for the Bloggettes, well, I'm sure they'll be blogging about their purchases shortly.

My take for the day:



You didn't actually think I'd buy fabric, did you -- and ruin my reputation?

Oh, before I forget, you'll be happy to know that I wore my new shirt -- AND stayed within my "new look" palette (Cathy's work wasn't in vain).



You may have noticed earlier that my shirt isn't quite....complete.

Who really needs cuffs, buttons, buttonholes, or a rolled hem?   It's still a shirt, isn't it?

The Bloggettes were thrilled to see this ripped-from-the-headlines garment in person and asked specifically to see the few stubborn stain remnants visible on the shirt itself.  Specimens were sent to the lab with results due back shortly.

As for the beautiful Bloggettes, you'll be hearing more about them for sure.  These women are formidable: they can sew, they can shop, and they can write about it.

Visit their blogs today (just click their names).  Tell them "Sequins" sent you!

"He Blinded Me With Science" 5 Tees - Update New Files

+ Please re-download +

If you have downloaded these from my MTS Profile.

FOR TEEN MALES
HERE

I made some mistakes when I made these tees.

(This was back in my early days of making custom content)

But don't worry I already fixed it.

I also fixed the graphic stencils. Now they look much better in game.

 

From Original Post

+ August 11th 2009 +

LINK

Yes folks, I made shirts. :)

But don't ask how long I worked on these (I'm a total noob :P)

(From figured out how to make DDS Plug Ins
works on my 'puter, learn the Tut - bunch of Trial & Error -
to finally had the "Gotcha!" moment)

Long story short, I made these stencil shirts (5 in total) for your YA/A Male Sims.

Why robot, you may ask? Cause they're COOL! :P

(Raise your hand if you agree ^_^)

I hope you like them as much as my sims and I like it.

Enjoy and Happy Simming, Everyone!

NewOne

He Blinded Me With Science

Young Adult & Adult

Everyday I Sleepwear I Athletic

Recolorable

(except the stencil part)

+ Bee Robot +

+ Robot For Science +

+ Robot & Ghost +

(As seen here)

+ PlayBot +

+ Do You Like My Robot ? +

(Click on the pics to enlarge them)

+ DOWNLOAD +

Bee Robot
Robot For Science
Robot & Ghost
PlayBot
Do You Like My Robot?
All 5 Tees
(In One Row)

+ For Teen Males +
You can get it here

Models by Me:

Ethan

Hayden

Jiro

Custom Content By Me:

Skinny Jeans

L4D Tattoos

Custom Content I Used:

Skin by Subaxi

Eyes by Sims2Time

Hairs by

Cazy, Aikea & Savio

Eyebrows by Subaxi & Nandonalt

Chinstrap by KittyKlan
Lipgloss by Channy & VIvin

Eyelashes by Arisuka

Piercing by Astray Sims

Credits:

CTU Team for the tool

All creators above for creating cool CC. Thankies!

My Boys

Ethan, Hayden & Jiro

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not for the squeamish -- with POLL

I saw this photo on Sartorialist yesterday and thought (as I often do): Why not me?

Then it hit me: 

Eureka -- I'd make myself a club-collared shirt!  I had the pattern: McCalls 6890, a vintage mens shirt pattern from 1979.  All I needed was the fabric.



I rushed to my local Salvation Army and picked up a lovely, creamy-white, all-cotton flat sheet, neatly folded and smelling of dryer sheets.



I was ready to roll.

As I was ironing it, however, I noticed something rather unfortunate.  This sheet was...how to say it...not perfectly white.

Oh, heck, we're all adults here:  This sheet had been well loved -- or rather, someone had been well loved on this sheet.







This sheet had a few other annoying (albeit less embarrassing) problems, like these:





I am nothing if not forgiving (we all have a few flaws, right?) and I managed to cut around most of the abominations imperfections.  I certainly wasn't going to let some stains ruin my sewing day, nor discard a perfectly good $1.99 bed linen; do you think money grows on trees?

I cut out my fabric -- strategically -- and got to work.



As of last night I had finished everything but the sleeves, hem, cuffs, and buttonholes.



I'm particularly proud of this:



The question of the moment is, will this shirt be ready to wear to lunch today with the Slapdash Sewist and her entourage?  I have many other sheets shirts to choose from, of course, and I hate to rush.

A second question might be, if I do wear the shirt and Slappy's read my blog, will I be banished to the far corner of the room?

Consider this the first Male Pattern Boldness cliffhanger!

Honestly, readers, was I wrong to just work around those stains?  It's not like the sheet hadn't been laundered; it was simply beyond laundry.

It HAD found its way to the thrift store, after all.

In your own words:

The hills are alive...

Readers, I have officially jumped the shark.

This pattern will soon be in my stash, thanks to an impulsive "Buy it Now" cursor click.  You can probably guess where I'm going with this...

Whoops, wrong photo.  Let's try again:

Don't these images just put a lump in your throat and a song in your heart?  (Or is it the other way around?)

Just to clarify, this was NOT my idea -- not by a long shot.  But you-know-who has a weakness for all things Julie Andrews and I didn't feel up to this.  I don't know exactly when I'm going to make this little Tyrolean number, but rest assured it has risen nearly to the top of my to-sew list. 

Actually,  today's entry was supposed to be about finding one's sewing inspiration from the movies.  It was supposed to be about YOU, loyal followers and lurkers.  But as usual my enthusiasm got the better of me.

I recognize that most of you can relate to this kind of thing more than my kooky creations:

Some obscure blogger whipped this up last fall, inspired by Katherine Hepburn or Audrey Meadows or somebody.  But it was obviously inspired by a movie -- some might even say ripped off completely without so much as a nod to the original designer, Marc Jacobs. 

But getting back to movie inspiration, have any of you ever made this pattern?

 How about this one?

For me, when a pattern is marketed as a costume it totally loses its appeal to me (not counting clowns of course).  It seems just one step removed from those Halloween costumes from Woolworths (RIP), cheap plastic mask secured with a stapled-on rubber band.  Not to mention that if you're sewing one of these, so are a thousand other people.  Where's the fun in that?

In closing, I ask you:  Have you ever been inspired to sew something you saw in a movie?  Were you making a costume or a real, wearable (after October 31, that is) garment?  

What movie outfit would you most like to wear, if you could?

Get it off your chest!

And for your movie entertainment, you simply MUST watch this.  One question: weren't there seven children?  (I mean, talk about low budget.)



More hilarity:

Are you Polyvore-ous?

Well, are you?

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry: two days ago, I wouldn't have either.

BTW, it does not mean having two husbands -- not that there's anything wrong with that.

So in this week's "New Yorker" magazine I read an article about this hot new fashion/shopping/style website called Polyvore.  You can read the article here but please finish my blog first and yes, I mean you.

Basically, you cut and paste photos of stuff into a collage and then share it with other Polyvore readers.  You can choose from items already available on Polyvore or cut and paste your own images from any online catalog you like -- or anywhere else online -- with this "clip" tool they give you.

It's KIND of like sewing, except that instead of painstakingly choosing fabric, purchasing a pattern, spending hours turning it into a wearable garment, and then accessorizing it carefully to create a beautiful outfit, you move your cursor around what looks like a bottomless box of Colorforms and assemble a ransom-note-style decoupage of clothes and accessories YOU CAN BUY.  Which is ultimately the point.

So I thought I'd take a stab at it and this was the best I could come up with.  I mean, I do have a life people.

maworsblog.blogspot.com by peter in nyc featuring Juicy Couture shoes

I know this looks like something dreamed up by someone with a Zac Efron poster on her wall, but so does EVERYTHING on Polyvore.  I think that's their demographic.  It's the "Legally Blonde, The Musical" crowd.

Or am I missing something?

Help me with this one, oh wise readers.  Do you use Polyvore?  Had you ever even heard of Polyvore?  Do you think it has value to a sewer -- or to anyone else for that matter?

I don't like it much; it's just not my thing.

Maybe I'll go back one more time.  Just to make sure I haven't missed anything.

OK, maybe I'll make a new collage -- or not.   If I could find those espadrilles in chartreuse for Cathy...and maybe a fabulous Dior hobo-style handbag to go with them.... and some sparkly earrings....and some Chanel eyeshadow...

Ugh.