Food for Thought - Literally!

Since both boys are now in Boy Scouts (yay - no more pack meetings with poorly-behaved Tiger Cubs!), Dean and I get to have a date night once a week - woohoo! We went to a Japanese restaurant and had the sushi for 2. Check out that carrot butterfly.


And since we're going to Japan next month, Dean's been cooking some more traditional dishes at home too. This would be tonkatsu (breaded pork) over cabbage....


with tofu and cucumbers in soy sauce. YUM!


And here's what's next on my wardrobe list - a Butterick dress in this cotton. Pay no attention to the wonkiness of the print - I put the darts in then hung the pieces on the mannequin while I cut out the collar. Maybe I'll get that finished this weekend - my productivity hasn't been this high in a while!


OH - and here's episode 3 of the Great British Sewing Bee. I hate that the very end gets cut off on YouTube. Drew watched some of it with me, and believes they edit it to make it look like they're under the wire time-wise more than they really are. They made it look like Lauren wasn't going to finish her jacket, then suddenly it's beautifully lined, etc. Makes it more exciting, though, doesn't it? Here's a secret - I've been pretending I'm in the show, too, so I rush around and act like I've got a deadline - :) Oh, and I've got to finish watching Project Runway from last night. They certainly are more catty about each other than GBSB. Don't they know these little private comments will be watched by the other contestants when the show airs?! Maybe it's all a setup...

Nibanme Sukato (Second Skirt)

Yes, the Japanese word for skirt is sukato. And dress is wanpisu (sounds like one-piece - neat!). Here are a few more interesting words - sound them out:
dainingurumu - dining room
basurumu - bathroom
Emeeru - email
deskutapu konpuuta - desktop computer
I apologize if my spelling is off. Anway, here are some quick pics of it. Issues: front darts suck. I put them in, took them out, put them in differently, changed them, and tried to press the hell out of them to get rid of the poof. Whatever!


Love sewing with fringed fabric - no hemming! And I moved the back zip to the side - first time I ever did that.


Check out my matching up of the white chain thingy!


Okay, tucked in to show more details. I'll wear this with a shorter untucked shirt probably. Gotta find one of those...


Does it look like I'm wearing an apron over a skirt?


It's a little roomy, but I'm not going to snug it up for one reason - I can kneel on the floor and get up without ripping anything. I also made it a little longer than usual so that when I'm sitting on the floor it won't ride up too high - gotta be modest in Japan, I hear!

Oyasuminasai!

Great British Sewing Bee, Episode 2

I'm behind, but here's the second episode. I can't believe they gave them like 4 hours to make a pair of men's trousers! The only positive thing was that they didn't have to fit anything in particular. The judging was on successful fly zipper, etc., and they didn't comment on fit at all. My favorite comment was Mark saying, "I've got a proper pair of trousers!" with that accent. And the youngest girl seems to have a Scottish accent that's different from the rest. Oh, and I laughed out loud when the host said, "Ring-a-ding-ding! This blouse and a cocktail. Mr. Brad Pitt, would you care for a pretzel? Yes, I would....yes, I would." WTH does that even mean? But hilarious. Why aren't they showing this on BBC America?

Hopefully I'll have a skirt made from the Japanese fabric to show you this afternoon or tomorrow!

Great British Sewing Bee

I'm jumping on the bandwagon - this show is great! Sort of like Project Runway, but more down to earth, and with charming British accents! Thanks to Ann and Gwen for pointing me to it.



And I snagged a couple of more pictures of my first skirt with the shoes I found at DSW. I was looking for comfortable walking flats that were somewhat stylish to wear around Japan. I ended up looking like an LPGA golfer.


Drew asked why I would wear a skirt with tennis shoes.


Dean said I looked like I was "getting it done," whatever that means. (I took it as a compliment.)


A man at Mellow Mushroom came up to see if I was Nancy Lopez, and when I wasn't, he acted like he was just getting a newspaper from the bin...but I know....I know.

Couple of Funny YouTube Videos

Drew shared this one with me yesterday - good stuff if you've ever had a cat or dog.



Dean shared this one that's also funny, with a bit of political commentary as well.



And let's round out comedy and politics with some religion, shall we? I love Beth Moore, and my sister sent me this one - also funny but with a tear at the end. If you've never seen Beth Moore and you're not religious, start around 2:50 and watch for a minute at least - she should really be a stand-up comedian.



Okay, enough controversial videos...off to work, then a costume meeting to see how 4 moms and 1 dad (yes, I'm curious too!) are going to sew up costumes for 50 kids in 2 weeks.

Japanese Fabrics

So my Japanese MIL brought me 2 hand-dyed fabrics the last time she went to Japan. Now the edges are finished, so I'm thinking this is for a table or some such, but she told me she thought I could make something with it, just to be careful washing it because the dye might run. Well, they both made it through a cold wash and even a dryer. Here's one...

If I knew how to drape, this is what I'd do...

Here's the second one, which has fringe on all the edges.

So that looks weird as a skirt - I was trying to preserve the fringe as a border.

What would you do with them? They're a moderate-weight cotton from what I can tell. Too heavy for a shirt, and they may be too hot to wear there this summer. But I don't have a table they'd fit, and they're not quite like blankets. Any thoughts?

Also, I finished Stranger in a Strange Land, the sci-fi book I read over Spring Break about a man raised on Mars coming home to Earth. Definitely worth it, but the action and excitement of the beginning led to some sagging in the middle as they discussed religion, philosophy, and then sex ad nauseum. (Yeah, he joined a circus, if you can believe that, and started sleeping with everybody - but it was written in the 60's, so what did I expect?) Luckily, it all wrapped up to my satisfaction and had a killer ending (literally - ha!). Overall quite good. Next up is either Anna Karenina or Catch-22. Heckuva choice there.

An Updated Skirt and Lots of Zippers

Looka here - my skirt matches my blue suede heels!

I'm ready for a dinner out...but my intention was to wear this during the day in Japan. Looks like I'll be shopping for comfortable yet stylish flats. So it's overall pretty good, but a couple of things went wrong. First, I couldn't get the back darts exactly right, so there's a little poofiness on the right especially.


Second, I'm pretty sure you do something else with an exposed zipper when you have a waistband, but I didn't think of that at the time. (I've pulled the sweater up to show you - it's not really this slouchy.)

Anyhoo, I still like it. And I was happy that it sits down on my waist when the fit is right - not up on my ribcage like the vintage ones did. Oh, one other thing - here's the shrug I'm knitting to wear with it...but it doesn't quite match. Maybe they'll be far enough away that it's okay?


Okay, some gratuitous shots of our yardwork this weekend...make that yard-nap.


Love these irises!


And now some zippers.


So many choices...well, maybe not these exact choices...


Okay, back to Celebrity Apprentice.