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Showing posts from November, 2020
I finished a 1960s pencil skirt the other day. It's very authentic. So authentic I had to give it a satin lining or I wouldn't be able to wiggle it on. If it were any more authentic, I don't think I could sit down. Pencil skirts are structured garments and this one was meant to be tightly tailored, so I thought I ought to take a shot at following the design process properly for once. Looking up 'how to draft a pencil skirt' led me to The Closet Historian , always a fantastic resource for post-war/mid-century garments. She went to fashion school in at least two different countries, and if you want directions on how to derive standardized patterns from a series of measurements, she's your best bet. After twenty minutes of her doing math on camera, she showed the pattern pieces, and I knew immediately that they would not fit. Her method results in front and back panels with the same rise (the distance between the low full hip line, or the crotch seam for pants, to
It's been a rough couple of weeks. Discount Cheeto Hitler is refusing to admit he lost the election, which he did, by a fairly wide margin. The response of the Biden campaign to Trump's refusal to concede is -- and I am quoting directly here -- "[T]he United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House". On the personal side of things, one of my housemates is having (non-virus-related) breathing problems off and on, and at the time of this writing is in the ICU again. We're waiting to be COVID-evicted on the first of January, because none of us can get enough work to pay for anything. I have started feeding the rats entire sandwich cookies for brekfiss, because it makes me feel better. So you will all forgive me for thinking way too hard about Star Trek . I've seen conflicting reports on whether the novelization of The Motion Picture  is canon or not. Roddenberry seems to have thought it was, inasmuch as he wrote it an

Thanksgiving of the Dispossessed

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  When I was in college, I realized that I hated family dinners and refused to attend any more of them. This left me with a great deal of free time over Thanksgiving weekend, which I used to throw a party. I invited everyone I knew who couldn't, wouldn't, or just desperately did not want to go home.  I called it " Thanksgiving of the Dispossessed ". Given the screaming dumpster fire that is 2020, I thought now would be a good time to revive the tradition. I've been doing it for years, but the suckage is new to a lot of you, so let me make your life easier!  To help you fill that long dark teatime of the soul in which you will NOT be fighting traffic, weather, and the will of one or more over-tired toddlers to get to Grandma's house and back, I will be airing stupid comfort television (and some of my own commentary on it!) from noon to midnight EST (9 am-9 pm Pacific) on Friday of Thanksgiving weekend. Gather ye your leftover turkey, your remaining wine and pum

And so it begins.

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    https://twoseven.xyz/5tdRM4S62r
  Today is my online Election Day Escapism event. Find out more here! https://www.facebook.com/circe.rowan/posts/1819954198151909
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Behold, the Halloween costume. I gave up on finishing the coat on time when the sudden advent of winter (it snowed in Boston, and stuck, on the 30th) made it clear that I wasn't going outside in it this year, but I did complete the dress for some nice photos. There is a pattern for these given in Franz Joseph's technical manual, available here if you want one, but it's more of a base than a usable pattern. For starters, the grid sets out a pattern size 12, which is too small even for me -- too shallow in the bust, and way too narrow in the shoulders -- and the grading instructions ("Ratio unit up or down for larger or smaller sizes") are absolute gibberish, as anyone who produced either clothing or patterns professionally would know. Humans do not expand equally in length or width, or even proportionally in all parts of the body. If you want a real-world example of this, ask a busty lady about shopping for button-down shirts. Settle in for a rant. It's also m