recycled tee booty shorts and more pocket details

I spent several days while out of town trying to use up some of my stash of cute t-shirts, making cute little boy-shorts in various sizes.

I also further pillaged the pants/purse that brought you the Day Six entry for these pendants:

day... something...

OK, I admit it.  This challenge is, well, a bit challenging.  At this point I am so far behind on posting that I've lost track of which projects belong to which days, so I'm thinking perhaps it's time to abandon the "day #" filing system, and just mass post everything I've got documented so far.

Next in line: Thanksgiving weekend! Pasties! And a turkey dinner!

Not really sure why, exactly, but I decided that I (and every girl) should have at least one set of pasties.  After the Thanksgiving weekend, I have - not one, not two - but three pairs. 



The red glitter dots were my first try (and an attempt to use up some of the leftover scraps from my costuming efforts), and I'll be honest: they're a bit clumsy.  The seams and glue are really obvious up close, and they just lack a certain polish.  Maybe they need some tassels to spice them up.



Next I busted out my stash of sequins and the trusty hot glue gun, and created these babies:

The black and gold combo makes me think of Cleopatra.

After that I got really ambitious and decided to try making star-shaped pasties.  A friend of mine once posted some great photos of herself modeling black stars (like these), and I have coveted them ever since.  I had leftover silver fabric on hand, and voilà:

I'm pretty pleased with the way these turned out (I plan on posting a step-by-step tutorial later), but I haven't tried them on yet and I'm not sure if the points will dig into my skin.


It was a very crafty holiday weekend.  Much of this was accomplished between stuffing a 15lb. free range bird, making from-scratch cheese sauce for the broccoli, and baking countless loaves of bread.  Can I count the dinner as a project, too?

day seven: navy sweater dress

I love draping for garment design; the method, much more than flat pattern-making, allows the fabric to dictate the direction of the design, because you immediately see how the material falls on the form, where it wants to contour, what shape it will or won't take. This is particularly useful for me, as my starting point is usually recycled clothing, each piece with a unique stretch factor, shape and yardage, weight, and existing design details to take advantage of.



My day seven project was an interesting challenge when it came to to the design details - specifically how best to place them without sacrificing economy of fabric-usage. When making dresses from sweaters in the past, I've usually used the body of the sweater for the skirt, keeping the existing hem finish at the bottom, and making a bodice or bust from the sleeves. However, the sweater I started with here had a front body-only pattern that I thought would look strange if isolated below the waist. I moved the individual pieces around until I came up with an orientation I liked (hem ribbing over the bust like a tube dress) and then lengthened the skirt using pieces from the sleeves. The original strapless design looked a bit flimsy to me, so I pleated the original sleeve caps and draped them into a square front neckline, with a V-neck back. The final design has a nice retro feel to it. It looks somewhat sack-like on the hanger (or, more accurately, on the floor), but hangs nicely on the body and looks really sexy with a wide belt.

day six: pocket detail necklace

My day six project got a bit confounded, sadly: first, by my failure to find appropriate hardware despite running to three different stores across town; and second, by my subsequent departure for an ongoing adventure in small-town dog-sitting (which prevented further hardware-sourcing excursions). However, here's where it stands:


This was the detail from the pocket opening of a pair of pants which I upcycled into a purse. The hardware and embellishments were too interesting not to save when the body of the bag wore out. I liked the asymmetry of this piece and thought it would work well as a necklace or collar.

I cleaned up the back, and I'll be adding a D-ring to each end to attach a chain or cord... as soon as I can get to the store.


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So... you may have noticed a couple of things. Like, there's no post for day five. And, um, today is not quite the day after day six. I spent most of day five on the phone and didn't complete a project. Oops. And, as mentioned above, I've been out of town looking after my family's dogs and house, and this has unexpectedly limited my blog-ability. I have been crafting, but it may take a few more days to catch up with the documentation.

days three and four: costume round-up

I've fallen somewhat behind on my posting, what with the last-minute pre-show madness, and then the post-show decompression period. The following performance stills (credit: J. Lunn) are not the most detailed shots of my costumes imaginable, but they do make a change from photos of garments laid out on my hardwood floor.

Day Three:
red/black glitter dot spangle top and booty shorts for my "pyro-clowning" act. The spangle knit was a real pain in the ass to work with because all the cut edges rolled and it was almost impossible to get an accurate seam allowance. I did alright with the shorts, but I quickly gave up on trying to make a top from scratch, and ended up draping (and pinning, and eventually stitching) over an existing bra top.


Day four:
zebra-stripe tailcoat for my Ringmaster character. I altered an existing coat - cut out most of the front, slit up the back, and rounded the tails; stitched the raw edges under for a clean edge; nipped in the waist.

As a day four bonus, I also finished up the final details on my knockoff of Monique's Urban Behavior mini-vest, which had been in progress for several days. (No good stage pics of that one yet, but I'll nab one if it comes up.) At the risk of sounding immodest... I copied it so well that Monique didn't realize I hadn't just gone out and bought the same style until I pointed it out. Go me.

day two: 2-for-1

Technically, today is day three; but I'm writing about day two, and will probably continue to have a one-day time delay throughout the rest of the challenge. Taking photos of my completed project, uploading them from the camera, editing them, uploading them to the blogosphere, and penning a lucid account of the experience is really too much for me before bed. Morning is tea-and-internet time, so that is when you'll hear from me. Probably.

Without further ado, then: day two! It's a twofer! (Aside: blogger's dictionary has no issue with the word "twofer". But apparently does with "blogger's".") That's right, two, TWO!, projects for the low, low price of... ahem. As I mentioned yesterday, the Cabaret Carnivale show is coming up this weekend, so it's all about costumes and props for me right now. Both of today's pieces are for the candle dance I'm performing with Monique and Elinor. To enhance the effect of the candle flames, the idea is to be as shiny and mirror-like as possible; hence:

Silver bra! Elinor has a seriously wicked-cool metal bra with stainless-steel cups. I am not as awesome as she is, so mine is pleated foil lamé attached (vive le hot glue gun!) to a bargain-bin bra. I toyed with the idea of doing a silver-leaf effect with aluminum foil, but feared it wouldn't hold up to the sort of torment I put my costumes through, and I had leftover fabric hanging around that matches the silver panel skirt I'll be wearing with this costume, anyway. I put the bra on the judy and draped over it, gluing as I went, to ensure that I got the right contours over the cups and enough stretch through the back strap. This was a totally no-sew endeavour, which might mean that it won't be terribly durable, but it just needs to get me through the night.

My second project was a pair of flared jazz pants inspired by Monique's black glitter dot Melos, which I have coveted all summer long. Not a lot to say about these, except that they're fantastic and sparkly and fit even better than I'd hoped (especially considering the amount of eyeball guesstimation I did while cutting, and that my "pattern" was another pair of pants I'd made). In order to get the most out of my fabric, I had to make the back leg in two pieces, with a horizontal seam across the knee; with a different fabric, I might have been able to flip the legs in opposite directions to get a good layout, but with this I had both the nap of the velvet and the shine of the glitter dots to contend with. This way, though, I ended up with very little wasted material.

And now it's time to run to the fabric store! Back with more adventures tomorrow!

day one: fingerless leather gloves

Well, it's been a full day, and I nearly missed getting my first post up - how embarrassing would that be? Not for lack of productivity, mind; I'm busily preparing my costumes for the upcoming Cabaret Carnivale show (this weekend! belly dance! fire! can-can! burlesque!).

Today's piece is part of my can-can outfit, a pair of black fingerless leather gloves.





Pattern pieces:


One down:


The finished product:

thirty in 30

In order to jump-start my productivity this fall, I'm challenging myself to post details of a completed project each day for the next thirty days. (And yes, I realize that October has thirty-one days; I'm taking Halloween off.) The point is to accumulate five surprises stock for the upcoming holiday shopping season, repopulate my online store and some local boutiques, and generate interest in the line; but you will probably also see some non-merch projects - such as costume pieces, custom items, and additions to my personal wardrobe - mixed in as well. Wish me luck!

shout-out time: cotton candy cupcake

I recently picked up some rockin' bijoux from local (Halifax) artist Cotton Candy Cupcake:

(I also had a pair of large purple/orange fabric-feather earrings, but - alas - one of them jumped ship last weekend while I was out on the town.)

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And in other cupcake-related news, I just finished an amazingly delicious vanilla-mint "babycake" with key lime buttercream from Fred., which is a strange hybrid of cafe, art gallery, and hair salon that somehow... works.

art harvest

Phew... finally approaching a state of recovered-ness after this past crazy craft market weekend! Had a great time at the Halifax Crafters' Art Harvest - big thanks to the organizers, and a shout out to all my fellow participants (great work, folks!).

Pics or it didn't happen, right? You got it!



I think you'll agree that Helen (below) looks, in the words of another crafter, "absolutely smokin'" in her new five surprises sweater dress:

procrastinating

When I get stressed out, I make lists. I have a craft show in two days (for which I am insanely unprepared), so...

Things To Do

• make to-do list (check!)
  
• make list of inventory
• sew straps on purses (6)
  
• sew boot uppers (2 pairs)
  
• sew dresses (2)
• sew tops (2)
• go to bike shop for used tires (for soles)
  
• go to hardware store
  
• go downtown and collect backup stock from Love, Me Boutique
• finish boots
• buy fishnets (not craft-related, but needs to get done before a performance tomorrow evening... did I mention I also have two shows this weekend?)
• do laundry
• do dishes
• make business cards/tags
• figure out some kind of display set-up

I can do, uh, some of this in 48 hours, right? Right? Guys?

february blahs

It's been a while since I updated, I know. Sorry 'bout that. I've had a touch of the winter blues and just haven't been that productive. I'm turning things around today, though. I made a series of really fun bags out of skirts, keeping as much as possible of the original design detail in tact - so they've still got zippers and buttons and pockets and pleats. They're not quite done yet, but photo evidence of their existence will be along shortly.

I've also set up meetings, updated fivesurprises.com, blogged, AND taken time to look after myself and my space; today has been full of small victories.

~

I went looking for something spring-like to cheer us up as we ponder the expanse of February lying before us... I'm not going to try to argue that this brings to mind tulips and dewy meadows, but I keep running across this Etsy seller, Urban Heirlooms, and I think it's pretty rockin'.

love, me

I'm excited to announce that Love, Me Boutique in Halifax is (as of yesterday) carrying selected shoes, bags and accessories by five surprises!

The store is a wonderful, whimsical little adventure in handmade goodness. I encourage you to check it out, and not just because my stuff will be there; there is fantastic art on the walls, local and independent music piped through the speakers, and a great selection of beautiful and quirky products.

good things

Excitement!

Etsy seller TheLoudLion included one of my pieces in her Treasury.

Treasury lists consist of 12 items plus 4 alternates, usually selected by ordinary Etsy members based on a theme (in this case the theme is gold hearts). The lists are short-lived, expiring after 24-72 hours, and Treasury spots are hard to come by: in order to get one, you have to be waiting when an existing spot expires and pounce before someone else does. Etsy admins troll these lists for particularly well-assembled and attractive collections to feature on the front page... providing a LOT of exposure for the featured sellers. (You can find out more about how it works here.)

Even if a list is not chosen for the front page, it will be seen by lots of people who might not otherwise come across these items, making it a great promotional tool. And promotion is something I definitely need right now.

s... ty-le... ?

I realized that it's been a long time since I actually wrote about style, which is this blog's whole raison d'être; sure, I've written about crafting bellydance costumes (DIY, so we'll give it the OK) and choosing a stage name (constructing an alternative personal style... so, warm, but getting cooler) and starting my business. I've also written about soup and computers and my goals for the new year (we're seriously stretching things...).

Now that I have my business, I expect to be chronicalling my entrepreneurial foibles quite a bit, which will include plenty about the interesting, stylish things I'm making and my inspirations and so on... but it will probably also include a lot of random stuff about CSS, chocolate, megapixels and how much I want to go to Florida to escape the cold. Bear with me.

Offtopic: If you have not yet seen Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, you have catching up to do. It's out on DVD now and has a musical commentary track. (Musical! Commentary!) Trust me on this one; even die-hard show-tunes despisers agree that this mini-movie is possibly the most awesome thing ever.

conquering the inter-web

So... entrepreneurship has turned me into a big ol' computer geek.

It started innocently enough: I wanted to brush up on the tiny bit of HTML I learned about back in ninth grade. My dear, professionally nerdy friend offered to set up a business website for me, but even with the framework all outsourced, I'd still need to be able to update product pages on my own. I started working on an outline for it using OpenOffice.org's HTML editor, which is a very basic substitute for programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver (and, people, can I please just get a "Hell yeah!" for open-source?); but I found the WYSIWHG process somewhat frustrating, and according to Matt it codes "like garbage" anyway - when we met for lunch to look it over, he spent the better part of the hour just correcting the syntax. (Despite the web writer's shortcomings, I still dig the OOo suite, though. Get it. Love it.) Between my control-freakishness/perfectionism and the fact that I felt a bit bad for getting my friend to do for free (well, barter, actually - but I felt I was getting by far the more valuable end of the stick) what other people pay him quite handsomely to do... after that fateful lunch meeting I had to pass by the library anyway, so I stopped in and picked up a couple of HTML/XHTML/CSS reference tomes. And proceeded to spend the next seven hours glued to the sofa, giving myself a crash course in web languages and style sheets.

I kind of love it.

You know what I don't kind of love? Internet Explorer. Fuck that shit. Seriously. Now, I'm not saying that my code was perfect, because it certainly wasn't (come on, though - I'd been doing it for a day, so I'm hardly going to flog myself over that), but every other browser displayed it correctly. And the big problem is that I own a Mac (no, I don't consider that a problem in itself), for which IE is no longer available. So I was so pleased with myself, taking my brain-baby over to Matt's for him to look at, and then saw for the first time how IE completely mangled it. I nearly cried.

(And Matt, if you're reading this: yes, I understand your stance on IE; I still think it's an asshole.)

I have been messing around with the site for weeks since then. I completely redesigned the layout, taking into consideration some of Matt's suggestions; made an index, an "About" page, product galleries... and I did this all using TextEdit. Just code. Feel free to worship me. (I like my grapes unpeeled, thank you.) I have style-sheets. I have inline frames. There's even some JavaScript in there. I tap-tap-tapped away at it on Christmas Day. I was a woman on a mission.

I can't even tell you what my original deadline was, I've pushed it so many times. I do know that I had high hopes for launching on December 26th. That didn't happen. Then I was going to send it out into the world on New Year's Day. Nope. And every day since then. Failed.

And then... oh, and then...

It was ready. All the links linked. Finally. I borrowed Matt's computer, looked at it in Internet Explorer...

Fuck.

Viciously mangled! NOOOOOOOOOOO! And there was no clear reason why!

I spent most of a day trying to figure out how to get IE on my Mac, and waded into the strange world of emulators and alternative OS's: WINE, QEMU, Linux, ies4mac... turns out if I had an Intel processor, my life would be much, much easier. I still don't have a solution, but I know a lot more about a lot of computer-y things now. I ended up going to the library to check it on the public PCs, and then consulting Matt's laptop again. Not a fantastic long-term plan, so I'll continue my quest to obtain this stupid browser.

I am reasonably confident that every page of my site now functions more-or-less as it should on all browsers. Please take a look!

best-laid plans

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us. - Joseph Campbell

Happy 2009, folks.

The turn of the year is a great time to look forward, set goals and make plans for the upcoming twelve months; but it's also important to look back at what came before (or what didn't), to look at what we've accomplished, how we've changed... and to remind ourselves that plans don't always get strictly followed.

Luckily I posted last year's resolutions for posterity, so I have a pretty accurate yardstick of what I was hoping for the last time we reached this point in our trip around the sun. I took a quick look back just now, and I was actually surprised at how many of my goals I accomplished, or at least got a significant start on:

1. Update the blog regularly/introduce weekly feature - uh... OK, that one was a bit of a fail. But I'm trying to get back to it, now that I actually have stuff to blog about.
2. Get out! Socialize! Make friends! - I did this. It didn't happen instantly, but in early January I kicked my little butt to a weekly bellydance class, where (in addition to helping keep one of my other resolutions) I met wonderful women, some of whom have become like family, and in turn introduced me to other wonderful, interesting people and pastimes.
3. Treat my body better - Hmmm... yes and no. Over the course of the year I purged my body of over five years' worth of nasty contraceptive hormones and reclaimed my womanly cycle. This was an incredibly difficult detoxification process, but ultimately very liberating and necessary. I wanted to dance and stretch more, which I have definitely done. I took two weekly dance classes throughout most of the year, and got really fit in the summer, when I spent a lot of time drilling and rehearsing for performances. Now that it's winter I seem to have misplaced my six-pack, but I know it's around somewhere and I'm sure I'll find it again. My good eating habits sort of rose and fell like the Roman Empire; I can't seem to wean myself off chocolate. And sometimes I still forget to wash off my makeup... We'll call this category a draw.
4. Become a rock goddess - Well, a bit. I didn't really learn how to play the bass (and I'm thinking about selling it for business-continuation funds), but I did keep plugging away at the mandolin, went semi-regularly to home-town jam nights at the Trellis Cafe, and finished out the year with a string of holiday party singing gigs with Tidal Rhythm. We'll say, Acoustic Indie-Folk Minor Deity?
5. Look awesome every day - I didn't really reach that stage of effortless presentation that I keep striving for, but I think I'm getting closer to identifying what my true self looks like.
6. Start the business - YES.

I'm going to say, on average, 2008 was a successful year. I learned an awful lot about myself, grew substantially as a person, and accomplished a number of stated goals.

Here's what I'd like 2009 to look like:

1. I'd like to follow Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food mantra: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And stop eating chocolate for breakfast.
   
2. Regular yoga practice, regular dancing.
3. Work on building and maintaining healthy relationships, especially the one I have with myself: communication, honesty, awareness, serenity, gratitude and appreciation.
4. Learn. Read more. Be curious.
5. Adventurousness.
   
6. I want creativity to be my job, my passion, my life. I want to grow my business. I want to support myself financially through my designs, my performances, and a willingness to take calculated risks.
7. Blog. Duh.
   

I wish you all the best for 2009!