some bloggity business

there's been loads of discussion around the blogs about how much the blogger platform stinks. i feel as though i've been fighting with blogger since day one, whether it's about getting my posts formatted correctly, uploading pics, commenting (darn you captcha!), and just generally not working when i need it to. when i started this blog i wavered between blogger and word press and claimed my blog name at both spots. blogger won out because it seemed less confusing to set up and more customizable. basically i've regretted it ever since.

my fist blog-posted renfrew! shameful it's
taken so long, but i figure everyone is sick
of this pattern by now.

so i've decided to switch over to word press at some point when i have time to deal with that and hopefully it won't be too traumatic. i am concerned that, because this is a picture heavy blog, that those might get lost. and that would be soul crushing.

this is a nice drape-y rayon with a subtle sheen.
not great for hiding the lumps and bumps, but
it's super soft, so i'll deal.

regardless, i will switch and the switch will probably happen on a whim late some night after one too many glasses of wine... so if you wake up to some weird feed of mine in your reader, i'm apologizing now!

paired with my thurlows... it was only right.
i left off the sleeve and hem bands and lengthened
the hem to compensate and just cut the sleeves
where i wanted them and twin needled the hems.

also, i'm just wondering what ya'll do with your pictures in general. i take what seems like a bazillion pics just to get one or two where i don't look like a complete doofus. i try to make sure and delete the pics off my computer that i will definitely never use, but sometimes i'm in a hurry and think i'll come back to it later. guess what. i never do. 

the pattern's neck band was too long for this knit and it stuck out
all sorts of awkward. had to rip it out and redo. love that...
but now it's nice and profesh looking.

so now i have thousands of pictures of myself in iphoto, which makes me cringe every time i open the program because i HATE having my picture taken. i'm awkward, i don't photograph well, i'm super self-conscious, i don't know where to put my hands, ahhh!!!!

BAM! hand-made outfit!
pants
blazer

right now i have to upload them to picasa first in order to put them on the blog. but it... takes... forever... and they're really hard to organize. i use flicker occasionally but only have a few pics there. i haven't come up with a good way of storing my pics, but i really have no need to keep them for the long-term if they're on the blog, right? i just don't know! what do you guys do????

—lisa g.

i need opinions!!!

i'm just about to start work on the tiramisu dress but first need to vent and also ask a few opinions...

so i have some black cotton lycra from girlcharlee.com that i ordered with the intent of making a knit LBD. a while back an opportunity came up for some free tickets to attend the BSO. i ended up sending my husband because it was cold and i decided against wandering around the streets of boston late at night with two kids. i always get lost and the subway system confuses me... what can i say. i'm from the midwest—i drive places damnit. it also dawned on me that i really don't have anything appropriate to wear. i suddenly needed a black dress. i'm of an age where i should absolutely have a black dress, but sadly don't. so i took a gamble and ordered black knit fabric online and thank the heavens it is exactly the weight and drape i wanted.

i want to use the tiramisu pattern because it has that right mix of casual if you wear it one way, or dressy if you wear it another. i plan to eliminate the sleeve bands and just hem the sleeves, and will probably eliminate the neck bands in favor of serging some clear elastic to the inside, turning, then topstitching. i'm pretty sure i've seen this done with great results, though i'll test some scraps first just to make sure.

so here's my vent: i went with the .pdf version off craftsy partly to save money, and partly (mostly) because i'm impatient. i've done plenty of .pdf patterns so i know what i'm getting into there. i go to print the pattern and it's 65 pages long. what the what?! wow. that's a loooooot of pages. now i knew that there are multiple sizes that you customize based on upper bust and full bust measurements, but there's no good way to print only the bodice size you need.

now, i don't know a whole lot about putting together a .pdf pattern so i'm speaking only from the customer end here, but it would really have been helpful to separate the bodice sizes so you have the option to print only the size you need. i wasted so much paper. i also have a beef with the scaling. my 1" square comes out to 7/8". i had tested this with one page and worked out what percentage to print at, but for some reason when i went to print the entire pattern, it didn't scale. so now i'm stuck with 55 pattern pages that are the wrong scale. i felt so defeated before i even laid out my pages! it was just so much to dig through. basically i'm saying: pay the extra $5 and get the paper pattern.

i figured out that the off scale essentially makes my pattern one size smaller. she notes that for a snug fit to go down a size, so this should work out okay? my fabric is really stretchy, and i've seen people cut out loads of room from the side and under bust seams. the SA is 1/2" and i can sew it with 1/4" SA just for extra insurance. this sounds reasonable, right?

okay, last question: the bodice and skirt is cut on the bias, presumably so that you can have fun with stripes. i would really prefer to eliminate the CB bodice seam and the CB and CF skirt seams and cut these pieces on the fold. since i'm using a solid, do i need to cut these pieces on the bias? i just don't see any obvious reason to. plus i only have 2 yds of fabric so i'm not sure i'll have quite enough for all the bias cutting.

thoughts? lay those opinions on me!!!

—lisa g.