Dorothy (Dot to friends), the Sewing Stunt Double

So, here she is - my paper tape dress form. She was made using instructions by Connie Amaden-Crawford on www.sewnews.com -of course, the article is no longer there but there are plenty floating around on the web these days (here's one). According to the date on the bottom of my printout, I printed these in December 2006 - so it was a 4 year project to get her to this stage (yes, I'm completely on top of things).

She got made up a few years ago and hung around on a hanger for a few months getting in the way, then sat around on my studio floor for a few years getting covered in dust and becoming more and more misshapen. A couple of years ago I managed to snag a free torso mannequin from a store ....... that's what is inside her.

She's mounted on an old lamp stand that someone was throwing away which has a dowel inserted into it that goes up through the mannequin (had to drill a hole in the neck and base of the mannequin - the mannequin base sits on the top of the lamp stand). She's a little bit tilted but it's the best we could do at the time.

I remember this take took forever to dry, actually I'm pretty sure that we ended up cutting her off me before she was completely dry - there are only so many hours that I'm willing to stand around, barely moving in what feels like wet concrete. She was already quite stiff at that point, so we needed to cut in more than one place. Thus, she has ended up looking a bit like Frankenstein's wife after I finally got around to mending those cuts a few weeks ago.

To close up those cut lines (tape would not stick):

• cut out small tabs from the thin plastic that you buy necklaces on at the dollar store
• put a hole in each end of the tab with a hole punch
• make a hole in the dressform on one side of the cut line with the awl on my pocket knife
• attach one end of the tab to the dressform using a brass fastener
• pull the dressform together to the correct measurement (she's still a tad too big in some places though - it was harder than it sounds for me to be exact)
• make a mark on the dressform through the other hole in the tab (make sure it's at the outside edge of the hole, otherwise the dress form will pull apart a bit after it's inserted - I realised that a bit too late)
• make the other hole and insert the fastener
• continue

After all of that sitting around, she's a bit misshapen so I've had to pad her out a bit in some places to try to manipulate the shape. Also, my partner didn't realise the importance of necklines, armlines, waistlines, sideseams etc. so they're either non existent or dodgy city. Try explaining to someone that doesn't make clothes why it's important that a centre line is actually parallel to the floor.

Of course, I can't pin anything to her so I've been using blutack (the cheap version) to stick stuff to her - unfortunately, it tends to rip tissue paper if you're not careful. It'd be really useful to have the proper shoulders on her too ............. taking the previous timeline of this project into account, I'd say armholes, shoulders and a pinnable covering might be a few years off.

Now that I've got Dot, tigerboy is so confused that I still have some fitting problems - I can't seem to explain to him that she will have the same fitting problems I have, it's just easier to fix on her than me, after all, I'm not a contortionist.

Back from South America

So .......... I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. What can I say? I got busy, very busy. Work turned manic and then we went overseas (US, Panama & Ecuador).

We arrived home just in time for some serious flooding of practically our entire state. I volunteered, first for filling sand bags and then for the clean up - lots of stinky mud which of course I managed to get from head to foot.

We arrived home just in time for some serious flooding of practically our entire state. I volunteered, first for filling sand bags and then for the clean up - lots of stinky mud which of course I managed to get from head to foot.

Updated Google Maps - yes, most of my state was missing!

In other news, my drive to sort, refashion and toss continues. Due to the QLD weather, I've had oodles of shoes give out, unfortunately they were my 'must haves' and had to be replaced ........ I don't think the collection is dwindling too much :-(

I've also been sewing .......... stay tuned.

Cleaning out the craft supplies

It's not only clothes, shoes and handbags - it's all of those craft supplies that I no longer want/need/use that contribute to the clutter. Sometimes I really feel like filling up the wheelie bin with them so that I no longer have to see them, or at the very least, donating them to a school / kindy etc. But then I stop myself - there's a lot of money tied up in that stuff! So, over the last few years I've been gradually selling it off on both Dawanda and Etsy. I no longer bother with the Etsy store, just the Dawanda store.

So far I've managed to list nearly all of the rubber stamps and brass charms. I figure that even if I get back some of what I paid and it goes to someone who will use it, I haven't lost right? Plus, I've made more space (although, that is slow progress).

I still have to do the beads, findings, yarn, scrapbooking stuff ............... ugh, the list is endless! It's a tedious job too, the listing process. At some point I'll probably get sick of it all and donate, until then I'll just steadily list and sell.

I also have miles of fabric but that is something that I do use (on and off) and my renewed interest in sewing has me inspired to start making a dint in that particular stash. But I need to make room for new clothes by dealing with the old ones taking up space! Just looking at what I already have and the fabric yet to sew, I might be able to get out of washing clothes for 12 months!

At this point, I'm actually relieved when I discover something that isn't salvageable in any way, shape or form and can toss it without guilt.

New (old but unworn) outfit!

With my new resolution going strong, I wore an outfit today that I have never worn -

• skirt I bought years ago (never worn)
• shirt I bought years ago (worn a couple of times but the black one I got at the same it has been worn a LOT) 
• boots from years ago (maybe worn once - they're brown and I usually wear black) 
• wrap from a couple of years ago (used a couple of times - I nearly always have a wrap with me, so convenient for layering and adjusting warmth but you guessed it, I'm always using the black one) 
• even a pair of nylons that were still in the packet and have been hanging around for years!

I actually got a few of compliments, not to mention people were so surprised to see me in something other than black.

These aren't my preferred style of boot - I like square toes with either a wedge or thin rectangular heel (don't know what that heel style is actually called). One thing that did drive me nuts all day was whenever I was sitting or going up or down stairs the heel would catch on the skirt. argh!!!

Anyway, I think that for the time being I'll incorporate this into my winter work wardrobe. Might have to remove the snaggies from the heels though to reduce that little problem .......... there's a knife in the gardening gear that should do the job.

Addendum: I may not need more sandals but I've decided I definately need at least one more pair of boots!

Shoes, shoes and more shoes .........

Like I said in the last post, it's not just the clothes -  I have more shoes than a millipede! Again, some never worn, others only worn once or twice.

I found these six pairs (along with others, I might add) at the very back, bottom of the walk-in wardrobe, covered in dust and totally misshapen. For various reasons, none of them are being kept. When did I ever think I would wear those white slides?

Another thing I've discovered is that I have a lot of pink shoes - I nearly always wear black and I think I only have two pink items of clothing ......... what's the story? I've never even really liked pink - yeah, ok, in the early 80's when I was at highschool but even the guys liked it then!

So, then of course there's the fact that I could remodel them if I was really crafty - I've seen the posts on Craftster. Or maybe some of those leather straps would be a nice accent on the next handbag I make. NO!!!!!!!!!! It's that kind of thinking that has me quickly turning into my Mother. Let's be realistic, I haven't made a handbag for at least a year (unless you count the three wristbags I made in the last year, but I don't) and when am I really going to refashion shoes when I already have so many?

They have to go!!

So a new blog .... and a wardrobe overhaul / makeover

Ok, in the interest of full disclosure I'll let you know, this is my second blog. My first one was mostly concerned with my online store at etsy and the jewelry I made for it - that blog was abandoned when I started working long, long hours. Not surprisingly, I didn't start it again when I went back to university to do a post grad, nor on any of my overseas trips, nor this year when I finally finished the post grad but went back to working long hours. In the mean time, I lost my jewelry making muse (still selling a lot of supplies from my Dawanda store) but got reacquainted with my sewing muse.

Anyway, to cut a long, long story short, I decided to make a 'general purpose' blog. The catalyst for this new blog? I am starting a wardrobe overhaul / makeover and it seemed to me that I might feel more satisfaction if I documented it to see the progress made. Who knows? I might even get some helpful hints and tips!

See all of those drawers? Most of them are mine and they're FULL.

 I have way too many clothes for the space I have and you know how it goes ......... there are a lot that don't get worn for one reason or another (I don't always know the reason either).

I've decided my mission is to go through my entire wardrobe and make sure everything in it is wearable - I'm so sick of not having enough space and 'forgetting' that I have things (last week I lost a dress! - ok, it turned out it was in the clean laundry pile but still, it's ridiculous if there's so much that you can't find a dress, it's not as if it's something tiny like a thong). Now I need to work out why I don't wear that dress I bought 4 years ago that still has the price tag in it, the skirt that I wore once and have passed over ever since etc. And what about the things I've forgotten I have?

The walk-in wardrobe is jam packed.

One of my missions is to get more work wear out of this endeavour - I'm there 5 days a week, so it makes sense that most of my clothes should be suitable for work. I don't work in the corporate world anymore, so my work clothes don't need to be ultra professional these days, but although my current dress code is quite casual, I don't want to wear anything too revealing.

The way I figure it, there will be things that need fixing (missing buttons, too long etc.), things that need more alteration (too much cleavage etc.) and a few major overhauls, there will also be the things that I can't be bothered with and can go into my craft bin until I need them (yeah, I'll probably never need/use them if the ever expanding pile is anything to go by). Of course there will be some that need to hit the bin and others that I think someone else will probably get much more use out of (they go to Vinnies).

There are the shoes too .............. I've made a start there.

So, first up is this red dress I paid $5.05 for (I know this because the price tag was still attached) a few (3/4?) years ago. Why wasn't it worn? Well, at the time, it was slightly too big - that is no longer a problem (every cloud has it's silver lining).  There's also the fact that it's just a tad low in the cleavage area and it isn't fixable with a safety pin, that just makes the cross front REALLY weird looking - I tried every way I could think of.  I was in front of the mirror for 20 minutes trying to figure out what kind of magic I could pull with scissors, a sewing machine and an overlocker - it was starting to get complicated. Finally, I decided to put it on backwards .............. could it be, that this works? I think it's quite demure with the flats ... more on that later.

I think it's a little bit 'Mad Men'.
Oh, and the red heels? Bought them about 6 years ago - they've never been worn! (except for this shot obviously). I know why I've never worn them - the straps have a line of little crystals on them and it seems that something harsh and scratchy like fishing line was used to sew them on - need to get something that will cover the scratchiness so that they can be worn! What to use??

It turns out that I actually two of these dresses - the other one is a blue/white/cream print. Same deal with this one, although I seem to be missing the belt for it. Rather than using another belt I think I'll just cut the belt loops off, it's fitting enough without the belt and the pattern breaks up a large expanse anyway.

Wow, that was easy, two 'new' dresses - all I had to do to actually make them wearable (for me) was put them on backwards. My girlfriend came around while I was still wearing the red dress. She assures me it doesn't look like it's on backwards (I'll bet my partner does though - a neckline that is lower in the back than the front seems to confuse men in my experience).

Here's a good article regarding wardrobe overhauls:
Fabulous Femme’s Ten Commandments For A Wardrobe Overhaul

How to get a three column blog ....

EDIT (August, 2010): This post is imported from my old blog, which had 3 columns but as someone has asked me just recently about this, I thought I'd include it here.

Well, as you can see, I've got more widgets on this blog than I can poke a stick at, so many that I had to make my blog a 3-column blog to fit them all in. Of course, then I had to figure out how to switch to a 3-column layout without starting all over again. For anyone that needs the same information (in my search, it seemed that I came across a lot of questions asking about this but not many answers), use this article at Random Bytes.