Photo Feast.

After a fabulous 4 years...and then some, I am finally a college grad. Feels pretty good, the world is my oyster ;) but hobbies are not cheap, and the salary of an intern (next to nothing) is hardly enough to keep up with my ever growing list of NEEDS (or maybe wants...). I am currently taking TONS of pictures for my internship. I photo vintage clothing and accessories for a company called Sustalux (You can buy the merchandise on Etsy www.etsy.com). The more I use my camera and play with angles/settings the more I want to experiment with something with more freedom. Recently I have been obsessing over this little baby...

He is a "Double Shot Camera" and he takes the most fantastic photos. I learned about him when I was in San Diego visiting my darling ms. Autumn Quine and haven't stopped thinking about him since :) He is only $49 but that doesn't include the cost of film and developing the photos (no I am not cool enough to have a dark room...but maybe someday). Here are what the photos look like...

LOVE.

Maybe after my graduation party I will have some extra dinero to spend on goodies like little mister double cam. My other (not so cheap) obsession has been acquiring a fisheye lens for my Canon EOS...but those are a whopping $600 or more...so it might be awhile till I can afford that baby. For now I am happy with my standard digital SLR, but it wont be long before I get bored and need something new.

The Creative Insomniac.

I am not sure if blogging is a way to make peace with my sleepless crafting demon, or just another way to fall victim to it.

After a day of usual activities...work, workout etc. I feel spent, but my brain is in no way settled. Without some form of creative outlet I toss and turn with no control over my exhausted self. At night when the ideas start creeping in, my head starts reeling over new sewing projects or projects I have left unfinished. There is no stopping a fully formed idea once it is there, so I suppose this blog is a little bit of both. By organizing my thoughts I might rest a little easier...or just stay up all night perfecting.

So I am accepting my sleepless demon and embracing it.

Last night I was up wayyy past my bedtime tearing a topstitch out of the maxi skirt I started sewing at about 8:30pm. The skirt was finished but missing something, so I tried topstitching for a more "finished" look but this gave the seam too much weight and caused it to ripple.

For anyone who would be interested in a pattern, I don't normally make them when I sew but I can throw one together by request. My greatest fault is no doubt my lack of patience and this leads me to make endless shortcuts in my projects...but doing things the "right" way is no fun, so I will just stick with my way, no plan. I consider patterning to be a waste of my time because I don't normally sew something more then once. Not to mention I have no place to store them...

I am leaving for Hawaii in 4 days and it occurred to me during dinner last night that it was critical that I have a jersey knit maxi.

My inspiration, Thank you beach people, comes from this photo.

Generally the concept of a maxi skirt evokes feelings of a 90's mom post pregnancy or something. But I am loving how these days, with a hippie spin, anything goes. This thing looks HOT, and crazy comfy...so I'm sold.

I was able to piece together a very similar skirt out of some 2 way black stretch knit I have had laying around for years. I only had long strips so I just made it into geometric pieces like we see in the photo. Mission accomplished. Almost.

My next problem was getting this weathered look from a solid black knit. So I was researching some different bleaching techniques and I came across this...crafting website from heaven. AMAZING.

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3723/pipe-wrapping-technique-for-dyeing-fabric

This website has different techniques for bleaching fabric to get the most amazing prints. If you are interested in some cool ways to spice up a boring piece of clothing, check it out.

So as soon as i get my hands on some bleach (of course I am fresh out...) I will be testing this method...directly on my skirt. I have used some bleaching on other projects so I semi-know what to expect, but not really.

Don't worry. Pass or fail there will be pictures ;)