Posted on 4 Comments

Geekitivity

I have been forgetting for the last few weeks to show you this! It’s apparently been making the rounds on the blog circuit, so you may already have seen it, and if you have, you have my permission to skip ahead to the next paragraphWink Neil took this picture at Readercon, of his colleague Mary‘s computer. I wish I had seen it in person. She used stickers to create the look of a vintage typewriter. I love it! Now I’m looking at my own vanilla Dell Inspiron 600m and wondering what I can do to jazz it up. It never occurred to me to do anything to it before, but shouldn’t artsy people have artsy machines? It makes perfect sense to me… See Mary’s blog for more details on how this was accomplished.

Speaking of computers… I did a little geeking out in the last few days and made some enhancements to Polka Dot Creations. First up, a routine that will allow you to see what un-shipped orders you still have on file. It is available from the home page, or you can go directly to it here.

Secondly, I separated the book store into a system of “book shelves.” You can continue to shop the way you always have, or you can shop by shelf. For instance, if you interest today is in jump-starting your creativity, you might not want to wade through all of the polymer clay books to find something useful. Go directly to the Creativity shelf. I haven’t gotten too nuts with this – every book/video/etc. sits on only one shelf, which I choose based on the primary focus of the item. You can see a list of shelves here. My main reason for doing this is to allow me to stock things from time to time that don’t really have their basis in polymer clay. If I want to feature the occasional cookbook, I want to do it without getting in the way of the people who only use their ovens for curing their clay projects Wink I found a way to order some of those books I was referring to recently, but I am hesitating. I don’t want to dilute the polymer clay focus of Polka Dot Creations. I think the changes I made today will be helpful towards that goal.

Oh, I was just about to sign off, but I’ve suddenly remembered the project I was working on last night! (That’s one chesty angle I managed to photograph myself at Embarassed. Geez.) I wanted to make myself a tank top, but everything I’ve heard about commercial patterns is that you need to make modifications to them if you’re more than a B-cup. I don’t think I have enough expertise to attempt to modify a pattern I barely understand anyway, but I do think I’m just enough mathematically-inclined that I could build something from scratch that would accomodate my, uh, larger-than-B-cups. So, I did. And generally-speaking, I am pleased. I won’t be wearing it out in public for a few reasons, but for a first try, I’m really surprised at how well it turned out. So, what’s wrong with it?

For one thing, the pleats I put in the bust area are in a bad place. I need to move them more towards the sides. Also, the neckline and sleeve holes are not right. They look and feel odd. I need to copy the neckline of something I like. Additionally, I’d like the length to have another 2 inches or so. And lastly, I had intended for this to be all one fabric, but I didn’t have enough of anything. So, I used two coordinating patterns, and added a stripe in the front to help tie them together. I’m going to attempt this again, after I go fabric shopping, and I’m going to try to address all of these problems. Wish me luck!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! What’s on your personal to-do list for this week? Mine includes lighting a fire under my butt to actually get some real housework done. And I’d kind of like a hair cut, too Smile

Lisa

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Posted on 4 Comments

4 thoughts on “Geekitivity

  1. I’m impressed with your tank top!!! I think sewing clothes is scary. I’ve mastered PJ bottoms but every time I try to sew anything else it ends up in the garbage can. I’m sure now that you’ve made one and identified the problems your next one will be much better! I think it looks great!

  2. Thanks! I wanted to get more fabric today, but it was raining buckets and I just couldn’t face getting drenched 😉 I would love to make some PJ bottoms!

  3. I think the tank looks great! Even if the darts are a little to the front, it still looks good! I’d love to get my hands on your pattern! I’m a F cup, and that top looks like it’d be very slimming!! Great job!

    1. Thanks, Tracy! I was really unhappy with that shirt, and I don’t think I even kept the pattern I made – sorry! I did recently come across a tutorial online that you might find useful, for making full-bust adjustments to existing patterns

      I haven’t tried it yet myself, but I have it bookmarked for sometime when I’m feeling adventurous!

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