Monday, September 10, 2012

Photography, ho!

An anxiously awaited box arrived from Amazon today:

new toys

That's right! I finally treated myself to something I've been wanting ever since I first bought my Canon - a telephoto lens. As an added bonus, I also got us (myself) a newly minted reprint of the game Cards Against Humanity (which is basically an un-PC, adults' only version of Apples to Apples). Looking forward to breaking it in soon.

Have already given the new lens a go - here's one of our local murder of crows, preening on the lamppost down the street from our back deck:


Crow Preening by *dbvictoria on deviantART



~

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Winter is coming!

I was trying to figure out why the air conditioner was coming on last night when the temperatures weren't high enough to trigger it, and then I realized it wasn't the AC - it was a much cooler than expected breeze coming in the patio door! (Also couldn't resist working in a Game of Thrones nod!)

Aurora Borealis Crystal Necklace Earring Set Sterling Silver



I actually made this a few months ago, but had forgotten to list it. Enjoy!


~

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Another project in the works

No, why should I finish one project before starting another? That's just crazy talk!

Yes, I'm making another dress for myself. The closet gnomes have been hard at work shrinking my collection of my favorite gowns, the swoopy faux-medieval, straight out of a painting gowns that I love so much. Sob. So time for a replacement!

This is shaping up to be a bit on the gothy side. For a variety of reasons, every trim I looked at just didn't seem right, so I ended up making trim for the sleeves by sewing chain onto strips of leather:

leather and chain

I'll take better pictures of the fabrics for a future post, but the outside is a tattered stretchy fabric with a subtle skulls pattern, and the inside is a black sheer with a sparkly burnt velvet pattern.

Here's the trim on the sleeve:

sleeve closeup

And the completed sleeve - the hem is finished with a strip of dragonskin fabric, gunmetal grey metallic:

sleeve

Lining a stretchy fabric with a non-stretchy fabric has been fun. I've flat-felled the two layers together, and used a French seam on the straight side, which serves a double purpose of keeping the shredded bits from straying too much and also putting the contrast fabric forward for the seam on the straight side.

I've got the second sleeve half assembled, hoping to finish up and start on the body of the dress. The goal is to tweak the back so I can wear a wing harness under the dress and lace it around the wings. This will mean twice the grommets, of course!

~