Weekend? What weekend?
May. 31st, 2004 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anigoLessee....
Friday, dentist. I think I've discussed that.
Saturday... Gymnastics from 8-10, coffee and shopping with my sister followed by swimming with, The Kid, Dick, my friend MoMo and her kids and husband.
During Gymnastics the older gymnists were modeling their suits for the Nationals. One of the moms mentioned that she didn't understand how the kids could buy these $100 suits considering they aren't really good workout suits (they're all sparkly and spangly) and you're only allowed to wear your own suit (and not the provincial team uniform suit) if you happen to make it to the top 20 of the country - then you get to wear whatever you want. Her daughter (who's on the provincial team) was not going to get a new suit, even though she most possibly will make it to the top 20, because it just wasn't worth it. Then I open my mouth. "Can I make her one?"
So she and her daughter Kirstin, who is a real cutie, went out and bought the material and dropped it off about 7:00 Saturday evening. What I expected to be a fairly easy suit (I can usually whip one up in about an hour) ended up being quite elaborate with aplique. (for them what don't know, aplique is when you decoratively sew one fabric on top of another - it's tougher than it sounds) I have never apliqued spandex. At 9:00 I realized the technique I was using wasn't working. A quick trip to the internet taught me that you need something called "fusable webbing". So, thank god Walmart was still open. I got home about 10:00 and started again. And after screwing with this fusable webbing for almost an hour, I realized that you need to use STEAM and not heat. (Funny how much instructions help at a time like this.) So I *really* started on the suit at about 11:30. It went ok, I wasn't crazy about it, but I got it almost finished by 2:00 am. The Kid had gymnastics testing at 7:30 the next morning so we had to be up at 6:00. (Do the math - four hours sleep!) I got up and looked at the gymsuit. I was going to take it to gym with me to let Kirstin try it on before I finished it. I thought, "Jeeze, it would look better with the rhinestones on it" so I tried to iron them on, with no luck. So I said "screw it, I'll just crazy glue them on." It was at this point I spilled a whole tube of crazy glue all over the suit. This was followed by much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I took the crazy glue stained suit to gymnastics and Kirstin loved it. When the testing was finished - about 11:00 (The kid did well, still lacking in upper body strenght, but fine none the less) I went home and started all over again, but at least this time I knew what I was doing. I finished about 6:00. The suite is amazing. Totally beautiful. Best work I've ever done. Kirstin came over and tried it on and it was stunning. She's a great little kid. All muscle and attitude, but not snotty. When pictures come back from Nationals I will make sure I post something. Basically it was hell for about 12 hours. But a fun kind of hell that ended up in coolness. I felt bad that in the end, what could have been a $20 suit (that could easily have sold for $100) ended up costing them $40 (the cost of the material - There was enough there for two suits before I screwed up the first one) but I was very proud none the less.
Ok, that's all for the geeky seamstress in me.
I crashed hard last night, went to bed at 8:30. I woke up this morning with a headache. I don't want to be here at work today. But here I am. I'm going to set myself about three little goals today, and when I've completed them maybe I'll go home.
Hey, on the up side, the temperature is supposed to break into the double digits today. Yay for 12 degree weather. (Boo for the fact it's almost JUNE for chrissake!) Spring has got a seriously amount of catching up to do here in Nova Scotia.
Friday, dentist. I think I've discussed that.
Saturday... Gymnastics from 8-10, coffee and shopping with my sister followed by swimming with, The Kid, Dick, my friend MoMo and her kids and husband.
During Gymnastics the older gymnists were modeling their suits for the Nationals. One of the moms mentioned that she didn't understand how the kids could buy these $100 suits considering they aren't really good workout suits (they're all sparkly and spangly) and you're only allowed to wear your own suit (and not the provincial team uniform suit) if you happen to make it to the top 20 of the country - then you get to wear whatever you want. Her daughter (who's on the provincial team) was not going to get a new suit, even though she most possibly will make it to the top 20, because it just wasn't worth it. Then I open my mouth. "Can I make her one?"
So she and her daughter Kirstin, who is a real cutie, went out and bought the material and dropped it off about 7:00 Saturday evening. What I expected to be a fairly easy suit (I can usually whip one up in about an hour) ended up being quite elaborate with aplique. (for them what don't know, aplique is when you decoratively sew one fabric on top of another - it's tougher than it sounds) I have never apliqued spandex. At 9:00 I realized the technique I was using wasn't working. A quick trip to the internet taught me that you need something called "fusable webbing". So, thank god Walmart was still open. I got home about 10:00 and started again. And after screwing with this fusable webbing for almost an hour, I realized that you need to use STEAM and not heat. (Funny how much instructions help at a time like this.) So I *really* started on the suit at about 11:30. It went ok, I wasn't crazy about it, but I got it almost finished by 2:00 am. The Kid had gymnastics testing at 7:30 the next morning so we had to be up at 6:00. (Do the math - four hours sleep!) I got up and looked at the gymsuit. I was going to take it to gym with me to let Kirstin try it on before I finished it. I thought, "Jeeze, it would look better with the rhinestones on it" so I tried to iron them on, with no luck. So I said "screw it, I'll just crazy glue them on." It was at this point I spilled a whole tube of crazy glue all over the suit. This was followed by much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I took the crazy glue stained suit to gymnastics and Kirstin loved it. When the testing was finished - about 11:00 (The kid did well, still lacking in upper body strenght, but fine none the less) I went home and started all over again, but at least this time I knew what I was doing. I finished about 6:00. The suite is amazing. Totally beautiful. Best work I've ever done. Kirstin came over and tried it on and it was stunning. She's a great little kid. All muscle and attitude, but not snotty. When pictures come back from Nationals I will make sure I post something. Basically it was hell for about 12 hours. But a fun kind of hell that ended up in coolness. I felt bad that in the end, what could have been a $20 suit (that could easily have sold for $100) ended up costing them $40 (the cost of the material - There was enough there for two suits before I screwed up the first one) but I was very proud none the less.
Ok, that's all for the geeky seamstress in me.
I crashed hard last night, went to bed at 8:30. I woke up this morning with a headache. I don't want to be here at work today. But here I am. I'm going to set myself about three little goals today, and when I've completed them maybe I'll go home.
Hey, on the up side, the temperature is supposed to break into the double digits today. Yay for 12 degree weather. (Boo for the fact it's almost JUNE for chrissake!) Spring has got a seriously amount of catching up to do here in Nova Scotia.