Can I just say...

...making a coat from scratch is a bitch.

A total bitch.

BUT it has been an incredible learning experience for me. So there.

I've got some semblance of a muslin worked out, sort of. And the fit is coming along better than I was expecting, given my slow progress on it. But I am terrified to cut into the fashion fabric for it. Paralyzed, really. I bought twice the required amount of fabric for it to account for screw-ups, and I still can't bring myself to do it.

I'm dumb.

Whatever.

My camera is dumb, too. I mean aside from it simply insisting on taking nothing but crap photos of me anytime I point it in my direction. It is now having a ball torturing me by hiding its cables and making the card reader on my computer crash, and blah, and other things that result in sum in my not posting for 2 months. Okay, maybe not totally the camera's fault, but whatevs. We march on.

In other news, Ms. Pearl is being a total doll -- which removes her from the list of excuses I can use for not getting around to finishing this coat. Also, Nutburgers-the-Neighbor has been in the clink for the last month or so, eliminating him from my excuse list as well. Though his spot on said list may have been replaced by the luxurious joy of drinking beer on my porch at twilight without worrying about whether I'll be accosted by the latest "discovery" that his ex-roommates are tunneling under the house and feeding him rat poison in the middle of the night while he sleeps. I could not make this stuff up, I swear. Amazing shit.

At some point soon I hope to make a decent attempt at finding camera cables and making an effort to be productive. We'll see how well that goes. Wish me luck!

In solidarity,
Ms. May

Slopers and Steroids

The results of Mr. Dude's dedicated measuring of his wife:

Here we have both a pants and a shell fitting pattern, complete with seam allowances -- what?!? That's right. Pattern Maker includes seam allowances in their computations, which excites me more than I care to admit.

Stoked.

So, 'member that time when I said I was off to buy muslin and a printer?

I lied.

I managed to get as far as printing out the patterns. I won't put in writing exactly how I managed, but I did. However I still don't have the proper fabric to bust these out.

We've had some... well, interesting issues lately with a next door neighbor who is experiencing a bit of corticosteroid-induced paranoid psychosis. And by "corticosteroid-induced paranoid psychosis" I mean literally. Not in the figurative sense you might be used to. Not like when you're all, "What's up with my boss lately? She's totally got a case of corticosteroid-induced paranoid psychosis. Jeez."

Nope. Not like that.

I mean like when you're all, "What's up with my next door neighbor using a sledgehammer to manually disassemble his garage all Sunday afternoon, then glaring at Mr. Dude demanding, 'Do you know who I really am???', jumping in his SUV and racing it at 140 mph off the nearest freeway on-ramp into a ditch, getting cut out of said demolished SUV with the jaws of life, then escaping the emergency room with a compound fracture in his arm and six broken ribs against doctors' warnings, removing the cast and stitches himself during a bout with insomnia, then telling Mr. Dude that if he ever feels like helping him take the rest of the stitches out to just go ahead and knock on his door whenever? Seems like he's got a case of corticosteroid-induced paranoid psychosis. Jeez."

So I've been a bit jumpy around my house lately, is all.

Hopefully I can tackle the fitting shell and pants sometime soon. And hopefully my neighbor doesn't find another SUV to use.