dragonlady7

via https://ift.tt/d3NOvmH

so i have been doing things other than writing.

let’s see. project updates. Oh yes! I have developed a full-on addiction to scrolling through all of the listings on goodwill.com. i did buy like half a dozen fur coats and Tuesday afternoon since it was sunny and above freezing I sat out on the sunporch and disassembled one. The sleeve was torn, and that let me get inside to find how the lining was attached and let me tell you there is so much hand-assembly in these things, holy fuck. So interesting, construction-techniques-wise! So I have a lining removed from one damaged coat, and the coat itself is still coat-shaped (and still has the pockets attached! very interestingly done), but I need to dig out my good boxcutter to start separating seams where the fur is sewn together. It’s machine-overcast very finely and I’m not sure how to do the least damage but I think not using scissors is the first step of that.

Mostly though I really like looking at things on goodwill because people own such weird stuff. It’s a weird kind of voyeurism I think. Not i want that so much as what kind of person owned this. You get no context. You just have to think about it for yourself. I love it especially with the jewelry, and sometimes the housewares. Like… the inexplicable art… the things that are obviously part of the same collection…. I have whiled away many a braindead evening just. Looking at everything on there. I’ve bought too much but mostly have kept it under control, but the sheer amount of time I’ve wasted– best not to contemplate it too deeply.

another project: I got Jenny Rushmore of Cashmerette Patterns’ book for Christmas, and the book is kind of a lot, but the patterns it came with, well.

So the book is all about how to adjust patterns, so I started off by printing off my size of the patterns for the tops and dresses which are the thing I’m interested in mostly, and–

I’m not going to have to adjust the pattern. She’s got them all cleverly designed so that there’s one pattern piece that’s totally redrafted depending on your cup size range, and a few others where there’s a line indicated– cut here for C/D, here for D/DD, here for F/G– and i can already see that’s the FBA already done. That’s all the patterns I’ve ever worked with in the past where I’ve been like well i can see even with this flat on the page that there’s no room for me in this already, i don’t even have to cut out the fabric, whereupon i most often just abandon the project– don’t need to worry about that. If I look at the size chart, I am a perfect 20/G with no adjustments and no translations. Every garment or pattern I have ever bought in my life, I’ve had to be like wellll do I go by the bust measurement or do I go by the waist measurement and figure I’ll just have to add some or how much do we think this will stretch–

yeah I’m never going to buy any other patterns, i’m just going to get my basic bodice block etc out of whatever Cashmerette makes and every garment I ever want I’ll just make from that, because. Fuck. I haven’t even made a toile and I can already tell exactly what’s up, here. So! That’s exciting.

I both never and constantly thought about the fact that my measurements have not lined up with any measurements anywhere I’ve ever seen a set of human measurements until I looked at Cashmerette’s size chart and went to do the “ok i’m in column A here and B there so I’m going to take a stab at–” and then was like oh. no. there i am. in my entirety, just as i am. Like– like I’m something both normal and expected. Like I’m. A normal person. Anyway that’s proven to be unexpectedly profound!

The last thing is that we’re watching the original Cowboy Bebop series, one episode a night, and every single one we watch in silence and then at the end are like that was fucking weird. I remember some of it from when I first watched it circa 1999, but man that series is fucking weird. In an extremely relatable and manageable way, mind– not like some things, this is not an epic, this is just four weird people and a weird dog in space doing weird shit to each other and society in general.

so anyway that’s what’s up. How’s everyone else doing? Surviving February? Heh, so far, eh? (Your picture was not posted)