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| | This and ThatJordi! We have a Lucky Starr! (It's nearly 2 Mb - let me know if that's a download problem.)
The more I think about it, the stranger it is that he looks so much like Robert Culp. Not only that, but a young Robert Culp, even younger than I Spy. I'm going to be very firmly common-sensical and insist on Coincidence or the Unfathomableness of the Artist's Mind. (Otherwise, I'd happily and somewhat-logically work out the rationale that since (a) Lucky Starr was originally a sort of "Lone Ranger," (b) the stories were written throughout the 1950s, and (c) Robert Culp played a Texas Ranger in the late 1950s TV show "Trackdown" (which was, by all accounts, very good indeed), somehow somebody modeled Lucky after Robert Culp. If I'd work all that out, I'd know it was all sheer fangirlish speculation that serves only to give warm fuzzies - but dang it! I'd enjoy the warm fuzzies way too much!)
I've been taking caps of Murder, My Sweet. After a couple of ferocious rounds with Windows Media Player, I'm now using Media Player Classic to cap and IrfanView to rename them. I've gotten some really good pictures, much better than the few I gave you last week. (Um, how do you prefer to get them? Zip file [how big?], one at a time, or CD?)
In other news, I spent all last evening sewing. Well, after consulting with the parents on how to retrieve Bro. No. 2 from College Station, conducting the Major Operation of setting up and breaking down the scanner, and fighting with and finally getting Mumsie to fix a Stubborn Serger. I am making this dress
 (1952, short skirt), in this fabric.  (Which is of course even more beautiful in person. Very Riviera-ish, with deep blue, purple, and even greenish hints. Mumsie, who is extremely picky, has very acute color sense, and moreover has loved blue all her life, calls it the most beautiful color she's ever seen. *squee*)
It's a step out of my comfort zone to use dupioni, because it's SO anathema for 1860s! (All those "slubs," those rough spots in the weave, are imperfections and would've marked it as very poor-quality silk back in the day.) But otherwise, it's still silk and it's gorgeously light and fluffy and crisp.
The skirt looks gathered, but is actually a full circle (cut in quarters) and sewn smoothly to the bodice. This is important, because although my hourglass figure is nearly balanced nowadays, I still do not need Extra Fluff right below the waist.
And the reason I sewed all last evening instead of studying for my final (tonight! Ack!) is that skirt. An skirt, but especially full skirts, MUST hang for at least 24 hours before being hemmed. Fabric stretches under its own weight, especially when gravity is pulling along the bias. So although I'd have had time to finish the dress on Thursday and Friday, the skirt wouldn't have time to hang so Mumsie could properly level it for me.
Really, the sewing went astonishingly well. Everything went together quickly and smoothly and correctly; even the iron cooperated! And the construction (see how the front fastens in back, and the back has sash ends that wrap around front?) is Way Cool. My only regret is that time didn't permit for me to do the shoulder gathering by hand. It would have looked (to me) far neater and even more gorgeous with fine, even hand gathers than sloppy machine gathers.
Incidentally, I made a patttern size 12 for this one. The waist measurement for size 12, according to Butterick, is 26.5". Written on the pattern piece was the actual waist dimension of 28" (my actual measurement). That's 1.5" of ease added to the waist! In a pattern that ought to have NO ease at the waist to keep it from looking like a sack! Just an FYI for those of you who've been snookered into the pattern companies' reissue of retro patterns. Check the actual pattern - measure it if you have to - because they've added a lot of ease to make it comfy (i.e., SLOPPY) for us Modern Girls who live in Stretch.
So I'll have to study during the afternoon, darn it. But tonight it will be OVER! Ha! | | | Posted 12/12/2007 9:40 AM - 2 comments
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