Some Projects

I need to come up with a snazzier title, I know. But gah: it's like I was telling The EGE about 30 seconds ago: I could do a lot of things way better than I do. I could take better photos (as you will see below). I could come up with better titles for blog posts, and I could be more entertaining and wittier and more organized. I could post like clockwork three times a week--or even every day!--and just be a generally better human being.

But I won't. And you know why? Because there's only so much time during a day, and there are so many things I want to do. If I take photos and then come in here and look at them on the screen and see that they're blurry and not as clear as they should be, I can either take out the card, put it in the camera, get up and go back in there and re-take the photos--and all that AFTER I disturb Clarice, who's lying in my lap purring happily right this very minute. Or I can go with these photos and move on to something else, like the t-shirt appliqué I want to cut off and stitch onto the back of the top I'm going to show you down there--the top that's way beyond where it was in these photos but that I haven't had a chance to photograph yet.

Let's just say that this morning has not been a calm and relaxing Sunday morning here at The Voodoo Cafe. Not by a long shot. Mr. Moe had an accident this morning. Oh, not what you think: as I've said, these cats are perfect with the whole using-the-litterbox concept. They are cats, after all: keep their spot clean for them, and that's where they want to go. But Mr. Moe is just the tiniest bit anal-retentive in the whole Covering Up area, and he will cover and cover and cover until every bit of litter in the entire box is piled up in one corner. Sometimes, in the process of doing this, he steps in stuff. This is what happened this morning, something The EGE discovered when he found Stuff on the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. By the time we realized what had happened (got it on his foot, shook his foot to get it off), Mr. Moe had run through the house several times.

I'll leave the rest to your imagination, but there ensued much foot-washing, perhaps an appropriate Sunday morning pursuit in some areas of The South, but not something regular here at our house. Also laundry. Also cleaning the back of the magazine I had been reading and that was lying on the bed--I hadn't noticed anything amiss with the magazine until Clarice said, "P-yew! What's that horrible smell on here? Right--let me see--Right. Here. Yeah: this spot right here. Ick! Gack! Wait--let me smell it again. . . ."

You know.

And so while I wanted to take some nice photos for y'all and show you these things I've been working on this week, well. That became a matter of just-get-it-done-already-and-let's-move-on. I'm covered in cat fur--probably I'm always covered in cat fur, but this morning I have on a black t-shirt, so I can SEE that I'm covered in cat fur (I had to suck up to Moe big time after washing his foot, which he Did Not Like, Not Even a Little Bit. It's a testament to his even-temperedness that he didn't growl or snap at me but just suffered in pained, foot-twitching silence),

So. First of all, some shoes. I've had these shoes forever--Borns I got for cheap, probably at Nordstrom's Rack in Dallas. I loved them in theory, but I hate shoes with straps. Unless I'm out walking, in fact, I prefer shoes that slip on and off. I know that some day in the not-too-distant future I'll probably have to wear those orthopedic-looking SAS Shoes For Old Ladies with ankle support and all that, but for now I don't want shoes that require me to buckle or lace or otherwise affix them to my feet. Just like clothes, shoes shouldn't demand anything of you. You've seen these that I cut the straps off of a while back:

I really like them now. No, I don't care that there's the weird hump where the straps used to be. Not at all.

And then I had these. I've had them for a while--maybe a couple of years? I don't know. But I've never worn them.

Strappy shoes are cute on little girls and strippers, and they're functional for the rest of us, but I just don't much care for them. They look too cutesy, but I'm sure that's just me.

So I cut the straps off and got some heel liners to keep them from slipping--although they didn't do that nearly as much as you'd expect. Mostly just a little on my right foot, which is the one that's smaller. Why can't both sides of us be the same size? Wouldn't that be so much easier?

Sorry about the bad photos, but, like I said, we're not going there.

Then there's this on-going project for the week. Last week I bought this top from BJ's. One seam needed mending, but I bought it anyway because I wanted to see what I could do with it. It's rayon, cotton, and OMIGOD, *polyester* (the lace part), and the lace part was open--the whole back was just lace, so you either had to 1) wear a tank under it or 2) be 21 with fabulous lingerie or 3) be just the tiniest bit trashy. I didn't like any of those options and figured there had to be another, so I brought it home and started playing with it. Polyester, lace, muted colors: what was I thinking? I was thinking, "I wonder if I can make this totally cool."

I have a stash of good cotton t-shirts, 79 cents on Sunday at Goodwill, all washed and dried and stored in a bin just for projects like this. I chose one in the same tone as the red. I don't know how to explain color, and I can't explain to other people how I know stuff about color--I've never studied color theory and have to check to make sure I'm using the right words, but I can look at a color--in this case, the red in the shirt--and know which range of other colors will work with it. A bright, pure orange would not have worked. A dark burnt orange might have worked with the darkest lines, but that's not what I wanted. this orange-y tan one was just right, and I knew as soon as I pulled it out of the bin that it was what I needed.

 Because it's knit and I don't have a serger, I stitched it all by hand, letting it be a little funky. I rolled under the edge and did a whip stitch and then cut off the excess t-shirt fabric. Here's what it looks like now.

 I left the hem showing. I like that it's uneven. Actually, the hem of the t-shirt is fine; it's the hem of the lace that's wonky, as you can see.

I'm not done with the back--although I usually don't embellish the backs of things for the same reason I don't have any tattoos on my back: because I can't see them and am not going to spend time/money on something I can't enjoy--I can't leave all that icky polyester lace back there by itself.

Then I did this on the front. A couple weeks ago, Zom Osborne sent me a link to this, and I thought, "Cool," and then forgot about it until I was trying to figure out how to make the front more interesting.

So I did this with some more of the t-shirt. It was a pain in the butt to cut, let me tell you. I ironed the fabric onto fusible webbing, traced a big circle on the paper and cut it out and peeled off the paper and then folded it up. It was so thick I had to use my Ginghers to cut it, and then when I tried to unfold it, I discovered that the fusible webbing had stuck to itself. Some peeled off, some stretched out parts of the fabric. Just a pain. I don't know how I'd do it differently next time, though.

Then I centered it and ironed it in place and cut off the part that extended into the neck. Then I stitched it--I don't have a photo of that yet and will try to get one today. I don't know, though: to top off the crappy (literally--I'm sorry!) morning, it's now snowing. For what? The 4th time this year? Surely some sort of a record for Midland, I'm thinking. Brrrrrrr.

I hope you're doing something fun. I'm dyeing a load of purple, getting ready to eat breakfast, and planning to get to Goodwill before the streets get icky. Oh, and getting ready for the back-of-the-top part embellishment--we'll see how *that* goes~~XO