Playing catch-up

I haven't posted in several days, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, N. had surgery. Nothing really major, but he was out of commission for several days and I ended up with a lot more on my plate than usual what with running errands for food and drugs, walking the dogs, and doing various chores that he would normally have done. So I hadn't been sewing or knitting or crocheting as much as usual.

Also because it's Holy Week, and I sing in the choir at church, and this is like the busiest week all year. I had rehearsal last night, I have rehearsal and Holy Thursday mass tomorrow night, a noon service on Friday and then Good Friday mass later in the evening, a rehearsal Saturday afternoon, Easter vigil mass Saturday night, and then of course Easter mass on Sunday morning.

I plan to follow it all up by drinking margaritas and beer all day on Sunday. That's playing catch up in a way also, since I gave up drinking for Lent and plan to seriously start making up for it on Sunday. Hey, maybe I'll do some drunken sewing and take pictures of disastrous results to post here! Um, or maybe not. We'll see. And then we're going out for a nice dinner to celebrate my birthday which is actually tomorrow and which I have no time to celebrate on the actual day because of all the singing and religious stuff I have to do instead.

Fortunately a lot of the stuff we're singing is my favorite kind of music, really overwrought crunchy sorrowful dramatic Lenten stuff, like Gesualdo (who by the way is also famous for being a murderer, see the links for the juicy details), and Sanders' "Reproaches" (also notorious for being interpreted by some as anti-semitic... I see their point but disagree, or at least I don't find it any more anti-semitic than the gospels are inherently which is a whole other topic better suited to a post on a religious blog which who knows maybe I'll start someday, plus I just find the piece beautiful-sounding and great fun to sing) and Allegri's Miserere.

The third reason I haven't posted is that I'm starting to feel guilty that I never have any interesting photos of either finished projects or projects in progress. I've been procrastinating posing for pics of finished stuff because by the time I get around to it in the evening my hair looks crappy, my makeup has all come off, and I've put on my pajamas to chill out in front of the tv and don't want to change. And I am vain so I want to be in my pictures, and I want to look good!

So anyhow. I have very little to share, except that I've come up with a plan for the stuff I want to make and wear in NYC when I go.

I want to make my grey jersey dress from a Vogue pattern I ordered but haven't yet received (I will probably leave off the ribbon wrap thing on this version, but I'm not sure yet), and I'll wear that with purple tights and my black kitten heels if it is chilly out, or barelegged with my chartreuse and red slingbacks if it's warm. I don't have anything else to match those slingbacks so I'm looking forward to having a nice simple plain grey dress that I think they'll look good with.

I have my purple tunic top that is finished already, which I will wear with dark wash jeans and black kitten heels.

I want to make the black Burda shirt dress with white line drawings of flowers, and wear that with the black heels and footless black tights and white shrug that I am nearing completion on, or possibly red ballet flats and red cardigan from Thrift Town.

If it's warm I'll also take the black eyelet which is finished except for an alteration to make the waist slightly bigger, and wear that with footless tights and red ballet flats and cardigan. Oh, and I need to find a slip to go with it first, and I can't find any slips anywhere... what's up with that, doesn't anyone wear a slip anymore?

And I want to make a twist top out of some nice stretchy fabric in green and black print that I just bought, to wear with jeans and heels or with a denim pencil skirt I'd like to also make if there's time and room in the suitcase. Probably with footless tights also, we'll see. I may also take the awesome tunic shirtdress/blouse I scored at Goodwill the other day to wear either over jeans or with tights also. Have I mentioned that I love tights?

The gals at Go Fug Yourself seem to hate the footless tights look, (and granted those links go to some pretty bad examples) but for some reason I really love it at least when it's done right, which it usually isn't. For me though ot makes things slightly edgier looking or more casual looking I think. I'm sure it will soon go out of style but I think I'm going to wear the hell out of them till then. They're surprisingly practical for this in-between San Francisco weather too, they make my legs a little warmer but not too warm since they leave the ankles bare.

As I lamented earlier I have no interesting project pics ready for this post, but a post without pics of some sort seems naked, so here is an image of another vintage pattern I ordered but haven't decided what to do with yet. I kind of like how that view on the right looks like it's a sort of leopard print, so maybe I'll make something like that out of it. ooh, or zebra print, I've been coveting some zebra print lately, I thought maybe in a coat, but maybe I could carry it off in a dress if the design is simple like this one. I'll have to ponder, and see what fabric I can find on sale.

I have several more vintage patterns on the way to me from Ebay so I'm putting a moratorium on further vintage pattern purchases. Also on fabric purchases till I sew up at least the list of things I just mentioned for the NY trip.

Tonight hopefully I'll have time to finish the denim cheongsam-like dress I started on Sunday, and maybe cut out the twist top. I want to experiment with cutting more than one fabric at a time, since I have some of the purple fabric leftover from the tunic top and think that would make a nice twist top also.