Tutututututututu

As we were discussing tutus recently:  here is a nice photo walk-through of how a classical tutu skirt is constructed in a professional costume shop.

loverly.

Of Tutus and Beetle Wings

Like any crafty person I have what I think of as "lifetime" projects. I suppose you could call it a sort of creative bucket list (but I hate the term "bucket list". It sounds so stupid. I always visualize carrying around some big metal bucket with a leak in it). There are a lot of them. I want to complete a puff quilt (I started one years ago but then broke up with the guy I was making it for so PPPPBBBBBTT!) Build an herb garden growing wall. Stitch some ridiculously complicated  needlepoint version of the unicorn tapestries. One of my biggest lifetime projects has always been to put together a classical (pancake/platter-type) tutu (the whole thing. Bodice, skirt, plate/basque). I mean, I know how to do it, right? I just don't have any real reason to do it. I might at some point get stuck doing some horrid and disgusting alteration and/or repair work to one at the theater, but I really want to make one from scratch. Always have. Even when I wasn't dancing.
Recently, though, I was at a Renaissance faire with my peeps (yo) and saw a jewelry booth that reminded me of one of my other lifetime projects: beetle wing embroidery. If you're not familiar with it it's basically what sequins were invented to replace. In Asia (particularly Thailand, India, China, and Japan) there are these brilliantly iridescent wood-boring beetles. They only live for about a month, and afterwards you are left with their gorgeous exoskeletons. They've been used for ages as decoration, and pieces of fabric and clothing embroidered with them was always highly prized. You know that famous painting of Lady Macbeth wearing a green dress? This one:

That is actually a real dress. A theatrical costume. And it's entirely covered in beetlewing embroidery. you should click through here to see the real deal.
So anyway, I got to thinking about beetle wings and realized that my tutu project is going to need beading anyway... so... why not combine the two?
As this post is already too damn long I will try to wrap it up briefly.
Beetle wings come in lots of pretty color variations to choose from:

and my immediate thought was to sew them on to a black or dark green fabric. But, I am also quite taken with these antique pieces, where the wings are placed on a pale background:

So, now I have even more things to think about. Hmm... I'm pretty excited about how this tutu is going to turn out and I haven't even designed the silly thing yet. Of course, I have no one to make it for (excepting myself, and my weight is so unstable I certainly wouldn't want to do it now) and no room in my little apartment to store such a thing. But. I won't always live in a tiny apartment (hopefully) and as soon as I move I am buying some freakin' wings, 15 yards of diamond net and gettin' my groove on!

Skirts, Wrists, Boredom Setting In...

Apologies in advance if you get a ton of random and pointless posts for a while. This sprained wrist is driving me totally insane. I can't drive (motorcycle or car). Can't work particularly well (I have just spent three days pushing my hand to the very limit of it's ability, and I managed to finish one tiny little top with no closures or handwork. This SUCKS). Can't wash dishes (my male doctors may laugh it off when I say it, but for reals, guys. If I don't do the dishes they just won't get done. I think my husband has washed a plate and a couple of forks in the past two weeks). Can't read actual books because I can't hold them, even using my little clamp device (totally for old people, but it has saved my life). And having to do everything with my right hand has basically made the arthritis-y business on that side go crazy, so it hurts almost as bad as the sprained one!
ARGH!

And now for something completely different...
So. I have always been pretty resistant to the wrap-skirt-in-dance-class thing. I am not sure why, exactly, it just never rang my bells. About a year ago I made myself some little georgette tap pants to wear to class when I was feeling particularly in need of a little cover-up. But my big fat booty-boo has expanded so much recently that I no longer fit the silly things! I'm sure it's the Zoloft that is making me gain this weight, but if my choices are extra-booty-fat-but-hey-I-can make-it-through-most-days-without-crying or my-butt-is-still-pretty-big-and-I-want-to-beat-my-face-against-a-wall-all-night then I will take the Zolft, thanks. Anyway. So I figured something new (and more adjustable) was in order. A few weeks ago I ended up with a small stretch of black chiffon left over from another project (more on that later) and decided to piece it in to a wrap skirt and give skirt-wearing a shot.
This is how it turned out (or at least how it looks while I am improperly dressed and standing crookedly in front of my bathroom door with no lights on:

(As an aside, I saw this picture and had to do a little double take. 

Ballet has, apparently, given me some actual muscular definition, there. 

Hey! That is pretty cool.)

 Which isn't bad considering I was just winging it and my piece of fabric was way too freaking small and oddly shaped to use as-is. Honestly, it's okay. But if I tie it so it stays put I have to cinch it in super tight and then I can't port de corps forward all the way, and if I tie it loose enough to let me bend at the waist then it goes all flubbaly and bothers me to bits. I don't know. It's an experiment, I guess.

You have to admit, with a few rhinestones someone would think they were stylish...

Inspired by Get In Shape, Girl! (which, for those not in the know, was a ridiculous line of children's workout gear that all the girls were desperate for in the eighties. Someone gave me a book and tape that were pretty useless because I didn't have all the crazy pink plastic accessories that were required to actually do the exercises.) and the fact that my ballet teacher believes that room temperatures below 80* would make us all cramp up in to a wad on the floor or something I have created these little guys:

Cell phone photo taken at 3am with a grocery bag

background. Because I am just plain classy like that.

Sweatbands! Because I can't always be within reach of a towel while we are doing center work. Will they be useful or will they just be an annoying thing sitting on my wrist and heating it all up? We shall find out tomorrow night!

DIY knee ice packs

Since I have been instructed to ice my knees five times a day I have to keep masses of ice packs in my freezer. I also needed some to take to work with me, and here is how I made them. They have little velcro straps to hold them on my knees (or ankles or whatever) and polar fleece covers, but you don't have to do all that fancy stuff if you don't want. Pardon my photos, they suck and they know it.

What you need:
-water (duh)
-rubbing alcohol
-gallon-size freezer bags with zippy tops (2) make sure they don't have those slider things on them, and are just plain zippy bags.
-food color (optional)

If you are using food coloring (I like it so that it's easy to tell what is in the bags) put two drops in one of the zippy bags. Then pour in your water and alcohol. The standard ratio is three parts water to 1 part alcohol, but I find that to be too squishy and liquidy for my taste. The more alcohol you use the squishier it will be. For this one I used 3/4 cup alcohol and 3 1/4 cups of water. Adjust to your own preference (you just want four cups total of liquid when you are done)

Squeeze out as much of the air as you can and zip the baggy closed. I like to write on the bag with a sharpie so I know exactly how much of each ingredient I put in the bag, for future reference.

Fold the bag in half. You can put some tape on the edges to hold it together if you want to be fancy about it.

Then stick the whole deal inside the second zippy bag and fold (and tape, if you want) that one as well.

Pop it in the freezer overnight and ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom, you are done. POW! Ice pack. You can use it just like this, if you want, just put a towel between the pack and your skin. 

Now, me, I have to haul these puppies to work with me. And use them during the day. I find it nearly impossible to be given free-reign to lay on the floor with ice packs on my knees for an hour a day. So I like to strap the ice packs on with ace bandages. It helps get them in closer contact with my knees, anyway. But ace bandages take up lots of room in my purse, and lots of time when I would rather be doing my job and/or eating my lunch. So I made these little pouches for them. Also, it means you don't need a towel. 

What you need:

-polarfleece fabric, about half a yard (I used this because the thickness is right, it won't unravel in the wash, and it is stretchy)

-18 inches of sew-on velcro (hook side and loop side)

-thread

Okay. Cut  a piece of polarfleece about 13 1/2" square, and another about 4" X  25")

Cut your velcro in to 6"strips and pin all of the scratchy (hook) side on one end of the long strap piece. Pin all of the soft (loop) pieces on the opposite end of the strap. Before you sew it down wrap it around your leg to make sure it's all in the right spot.

                                    

Then sew the velcro down.

If you want to serge the edges go ahead and do it now. Polarfleece won't unravel too badly, so you can skip this step. I serged mine just for the heck of it. Serge all the way around the strap and down one side of the square.

Then arrange your strap on top of your square, about two inches down from the top edge (parallel to BOTH unserged edges). I put the scratchy side of the velcro facing UP so that it wouldn't be likely to scratch me when I use it later.

Then stitch through both layers in the center of the strap. I went in a sort of zig-zaggy pattern on this one, but you can just sew a square or a few lines, it doesn't matter.

 Okay, you are almost done! Fold the square in half.

Fold up the end of the straps to get them out of the way.

Now stitch together the unserged edges, 1/2 inch from the edge. Leave one end open so you can put the ice pack in later. I just stuck it through my serger so it trimmed off all the extra.

There! It's done! Now you can slip the ice pack in through the open end and pop this baby in the freezer. Did and DONE.

The Red Shoesies Rockin' The House

So I earn my money by making things. But sometimes I get SUPER BORED of making clothes and working with big swathes of fabric and I just want to do something different for a day or two. So I make juggling bags and art dolls and purses and stuff and put them up online. Anyway, enough back story! Here is what I made last week while I was putting off doing real work:

 Vicky Page, guys! With tiny red pointe shoes, guys! Yeah, I know, right?

Craving For Creativity

Okay, someone needs to tell me that I don't need a rehearsal tutu. Come on, guys. Tell me that I don't have the room to store it because it is huge and awkward and I live in a one bedroom apartment. Tell me that I should be focusing my creative energy on projects that will earn money. Tell me that I would never wear the silly thing anyway so I shouldn't bother. Or that my funds are limited because I have two sick cats.
Please.
Or else this lady right here (*gesture*) is buying 14 yards of diamond net on Tuesday.

Sew and Sew

You know the big pink title on my main blog page? The one up there (*gestures up*) that says "Rheumatic Princess"? It can't decide what font it wants to be. Every time I log in it is something new. Mostly it just switches between two fonts, but it is pretty weird. Blogger, WTF?
Anyway.
A couple of days ago I went ahead and whipped up another shorty leotard, exactly the same as the last one. They are pretty fast when you have the pattern down. For people who are curious about that sort of thing, here is what the pattern looks like. It is the style that has seams running down the center front and center back rather than down the sides:

Note: baby got back.

Pink is Not That Hard

So I used to work at a fabric store. And you always knew who the dancers were, because they would come in and ask for pink elastic. And we were like "sorry, lady dudes. We've got black, white, and beige sometimes if you are lucky." but I felt their pain.
And then several months ago I was at a (different) fabric store with my mother and I was grumping about how I didn't like the single pre-attached strip of elastic on my leather slippers and wanted to replace it with criss-crossed elastic like my canvas slippers have. And I happened to be standing next to a Dritz (it's a brand of sewing supplies) display board and I looked it over and.... holy crow! It said they made ballet elastic! It said "pink specialty elastic for ballet shoes and slippers". I was THRILLED! But then I looked at the actual item on the rack. And it was beige. Not pink. Not ballet pink. Just... beige.
I thought maybe it was just this store's shipment, or this particular batch, but NO. Everywhere I looked it was BEIGE.
 You can buy this Freed elastic or some Bloch elastic in bulk online, but what the razzafrackin' heck would I do with that much pink elastic?
*sigh*
I think the elastic manufacturers of the world are missing out on a sure bet.

New Leotard! Oooooh! Aaahhh!

Sunday night I couldn't sleep. A storm had rolled in to town that was loud and windy and made the gate at my neighbor's house clonk every few minutes. And there were raccoons in the attic making a ruckus. Anyway, long story short I gave up and got out of bed. I figured that I would be sleeping all day Monday, so I needed to get something productive done so I wouldn't feel guilty. I made myself a new leotard.
I had seen some really cute shorty unitard type things online, but none of them met my stringent specs. So here is what I ended up with. It's navy blue, because that was the ONLY fabric at the local fabric store that was primarily cotton and had enough stretch. I tried dying some of it black in the washer, but that was an exercise in futility. Anyways.
I will probably make another one that is identical to this, because I already have the materials and finally have a pattern that fits me (you don't want to know how crazy the pattern pieces have to be shaped to fit me), but last night one of the girls in class was wearing this AWESOME red leotard with matching sleeves that were made from power net (stretchy, sheer, you have seen it) and it inspired me to do something similar at some point in the future. I heart it. This one is super cute, maybe I will rip off that idea.

this picture speaks. It says: I am a grown woman

and I can take pictures in the bathroom if I want to!

Also, it says I need a haircut.

Crackin' Those Nuts

Tis the season! I was inspired to dig these up when I was over at my mom's house last weekend. These were supposed to be for the Nutcracker, which I had just seen performed live for the second time. I was maybe eleven. JUST eleven. I don't remember exactly but I do remember that this was the year I saw Nina Baratova dance as the Sugar Plum Fairy and I had a huge girl crush on her at the time so that was pretty awesome.
I was at an in-between phase where I had decided that no, actually I did not want to be a lawyer when I grew up, but didn't know what to fill in the blank with. I had always spent my free time designing clothes, but this was right around the age when I decided that it was a viable career option. I hadn't learned much about sewing and clothing construction yet, so you have to give me a break. Also, I don't have any idea who most of these were supposed to be for.

This was for the candy canes, though. The ones who dance with a hoop. I remember this one very distinctly, it was supposed to be white and the stripey bits were, of course, white and red. I dig that it's so unconventional.

I have no idea what this one is for, though. All I know is that my note on it says that it should have white bishop sleeves (I didn't know they were called bishop sleeves then, so it says "big poofy sleeves"), a green bodice, and a darker overskirt thingy. I honestly don't know what shape the skirt was supposed to be. Bell-type tutu?

 No clue on the wearer of this, either. But, the note says it's probably pink floaty chiffon, with rhinestones where all the dots are.

Another for who-knows-who. BUT I had to include this one because I thought it should be made from a fabric that my mom had a skirt made from. I am all about reduce-reuse-recycle, and I STILL HAVE some of this fabric. 

See! There it is!--------------------------------->

This one is obviously the snowflakes, which were always my favorite part when I was a kid (excepting Mother Ginger, my other favorite part). I am still not entirely sure why snowflakes traditionally wear long floaty romantic tutus rather than classical tutus, which are, you know, snowflake shaped. Anyway, I guess 11 year old me was a rebel. I still think this is a cute idea, if poorly drawn. It would take unconventional materials, but that is the rage these days anyway. 

Also, it totally reminds me of that scene from Fantasia! You had better believe I was influenced by that, too. -------------------------------->

The Camo is the Important Part

knees up!

My project for today.
I have leg warmers, but they don't really cover the needed territory. And it gets so hot in class, I don't want any extra fabric on my body if I can avoid it. Enter knee warmers! They are silly looking, but I think they will be a boon as the weather gets colder. I know that they look like I just cut the arms off an old sweater and stitched some elastic to the top, but that is because I *did* just cut the arms off an old sweater and stitch some elastic to the top!