The New Joy Jacket. And Other Stuff.

Thanks to the fabulous Kathryn, who found this blog post about the Joy Jackets, with photos and everything. Go look.

OK. See the length on that one? It bugged me. Too long and kind of dowdy or something. I just never wore these. I have four--purple, pink, acid green, and orange--and did a bunch of hand work on them and have just had them hanging on IKEA hooks in the living room. I noticed the cashier at Goodwill wearing this cool jacket, and I realized it's one just like these (undyed), and I studied her and realized what I needed to do to mine. Make them shorter and remove the hood. (It's amazing how I can get a much, much better idea of what I need to do to something if I see it on someone else. Or if I see a good photo of me wearing it. But looking in the mirror just doesn't give me a good read at all. Yet I keep relying on that. Why is that?).

The problem is that I'd done that hand work and was loathe to cut it off. I've done that before--stitched all over the hem and then realized the length was wrong and cut it off. I almost whimpered when I did it--all that stitching, gone! Gack.

So this time I cut it off and moved it up and re-stitched it. A lot of work I didn't plan on doing, but it was OK--this fabric is really easy to stitch through, so it's not like working your needle through that many layers of, oh, say, denim. Yikes.

So here's what the first one looks like now.

 I cut off the hem and moved it up. The top row of stitches--the vertical ones--and the 3rd row from the top (horizontal, just like the two above it) are the new ones holding this piece in place along with the darker orange one on the bottom. The other stitching was all there already. You can go back and look again at the photos in this post if you're really interested in what I did to it.

 This is a close-up (just because I could) of where I cut off the hood, below. On the left is the collar, and then there's the cut edge, then the velvet binding that's on the inside, and then--on the right--the inside of the jacket. I pulled firmly on the hood and the jacket (I had to use my foot: stood on the body, pulled on the hood, and cut as close to the seam as I could). This beat having to rip out several seams to remove the hood and then try to re-sew the velvet binding.

The hood, which I'll save for fabric. It's a nice thick cotton knit and will be fabulous for something. I don't know what yet, of course. But *something.*

I wore it all day today, and I think it's going to work. Meaning I now have to do three more. Oy.

OK. Then there's this.

 To give you some idea of size: there's the needle, below. And the hoop is 6".

I don't really want to show it because it's not my image. I traced it from a book. I know, I know--and please don't tell Roz. (Roz is my touchstone for image ownership and copyright and original material, and I think of her every time I use anyone else's anything on these skirts. This whole journal skirt is embroidered tracings of stuff that isn't mine. I won't ever sell it, but that's not the point, of course. I feel all creepy, but I love these images and wanted them on my clothes. Actually, I wanted to have this guy--an image I think comes from a woodcut and that was created by Luis San Vincente (no website, but go here) tattooed on my arm, but it doesn't look like that's ever going to happen. I waited the two years after the melanoma thing and all the check-ups, and then I thought I'd get it done. And then there were all the infections with the cartilage piercings in the ears--those still haven't healed and may, according to a nurse who had hers done, take another year and a half or so. Sigh. Anyway, a couple of doctors have told me not to get any more piercings EVER and to kind of lay off anything for a while. So no new tattoos. Hence, this embroidery. Which--let me tell you!--made me pay for stealing it. O. My. God. I have never been so anal about any stitching, and I have ripped out more of these stitches than I have put in. How is that possible? It's not, you say? I swear it is. I think I put in one stitch and then had to rip out two. I think I must have been ripping out imaginary stitches, I ripped out so many. It's taken forEVER). This is a photo I took this morning; since then, I've finished it. I'll try to get another photo here. Wait a sec~~

Now I want to add some stars and some trails--you know, that show he's riding up and down on the wind currents.

Then there's this sweater I bought at the consignment store. Or, wait: a sweater I'm *going to buy* at the consignment store. See, I had this little problem. This past spring and summer were quite hideous, what with the infections and the dog bite, mono and the broken toe and the palpitations (in case I didn't post (who remembers? Not I. Hahahahahahahaha), all the cardio tests--EKG, sonogram, Holter monitor, stress test--show my heart is just fine but sometimes beats fast. I could take beta blockers (nope) or try other drugs, but since the palpitations aren't doing any damage and have gotten better/less frequent, I'm going with Lifestyle Adjustments (less frequent wine, more dietary vigilance (remind me to write about chamomile, please), more frequent meditation--stuff like that)~~where was I?

Oh! So this summer I discovered BJ's, the consignment store, and spent quite a lot of time there, buying quite a lot of garments to re-fashion. It was therapy--it gave me something to think about besides the fact that my body was being attacked from all sides. And I got a little carried away, it seems, and am now having to re-sell a bunch of this stuff. Stuff that (I should be too embarrassed to admit this, but not moi, apparently) *does not even fit.* As in: couldn't be buttoned across the chest. How did I not realize this before I bought it? (Answer: because it was really cute and because The EGE like the army-esque snaps, which reminded him of his dad's old army uniform). Of course, that's only one example of way too many.

Anyway, so I've been taking stuff back for Trish to re-sell, and she said, OK, that's it. From now on, if I think I want something, I have to take it home and wear it around the house for a couple days. If I want it, I'm to take the tag back to her and pay for it. If not--if I recover my senses and remember I Do Not Need Another Garment Ever in My Life EVER--then I take it back and nobody gets hurt. She insists. She will not sell me anything else otherwise.

She's so cute.

So I have this.

 It is so fabulously funky I couldn't resist. But she wouldn't let me buy it until I wore it.

 You can see where I'm trying out my idea of adding more fiber.

 I do not need it, but I cannot resist the idea of adding to it all the bits and pieces of fiber in colors I love, fiber that has been sitting in a bin in the storage building for years and years.

Isn't that ginchy? I was going to go over today and pay for it, but the s-n-o-w happened, and I didn't leave the house all day except to go out on the covered front porch and do that video down there. (I didn't even go out to the mailbox, and there's supposed to be a check in there. THAT'S how much I don't want to admit there's s-n-o-w out there). And now I feel guilty: I haven't paid for this yet. Yikes!

Oh, one more thing: I've been wanting a full denim or chambray skirt (one like one I had years ago and gave away, as my husband reminds me), but that one I had--you've seen it, from last summer--was dumpy and ugly. I found another one (another < $2 Goodwill find) and thought I'd give it a try. The waist was WAY too high, so I cut that off. And the hem wouldn't lie flat, so I sewed some tribal-looking fabric around the hem. What is this stuff called, anyway? (This is the chunk I cut off.)

Well, I knew as soon as I did it that it was a bad idea. As one of our favorite baristas said, "it was boring on stilts." Exactly.

Plus the length was really unflattering. I heaved the big sigh and cut it off (thank goodness it was sewn on by machine and not hand stitched or you might have heard me screaming all the way at your house) and turned it under and sewed it (by machine! thankyoujesus!).

I'll try to get photos of that, but I don't think it will stay up on Alex--way too big; it will slide down her skinny little hips. Maybe I should use clothespins.

OK. Whew! I think that's it. I'm going to tackle the other Joy Jackets and work on that sweater + fibers, and then I can start something bigger. I don't know what--I ordered this way-cool jacket pattern, and there's a story behind it, and I want to iron the pattern and cut it out and lay it out and see what I might want to do. But that may have to wait until after the end of the month: the contractor comes tomorrow to show me the windows and make sure they're what I want, and then in two weeks--less than, now!--he comes and installs them. Meaning: removes the wall to the studs and starts over. So nothing going on in the sewing studio for at least a week. Well, longer--we have to finish emptying it first.

Yikes.

Thanks for coming by--now it's time for yoga~~XO