After taking a couple of online assessments, I realized that although I do posses some skills which are useful towards an online course (my organizational skills) there are other aspects I need to work on, such as time management skills. I decided since I am going to school full time that a good way to work on my time management skills is to give each class I’m taking a scheduled time, as if I was actually going to a classroom. That way I know from, say, 10am-12pm it’s time to work on class A and 1pm-3pm it’s time for class B.

Another thing I hadn’t thought of was how when you write something down and a stranger who has never met you is reading it, they might not understand certain aspects about your personality, writing style, etc. so comments that you write without much thought, someone else might read as angry or sarcastic. This is completely something that I’ve dealt with especially with social media, and I’ve been on both ends as the misunderstood and the one misunderstanding. It’s a good tip to not only re-read before posting but also to re-read what someone else wrote because often one missed word can make all the difference.

I also watched a couple of videos about working in groups. The first video of a presentation by Dr. Haycock made me laugh just because of all the examples of how groups work were so familiar. It was nice to know that all my “bad” experiences with groups are actually common and so there are ways to combat them. There were good tips on clarifying what the assignment is, what the group goal actually is (“I want an A but Joe Student is aiming for a B so doesn’t want to try as hard as I do”) and just being ok with conflict and knowing that is part of how a group works. From the second video, I really took away the fact that group work is a useful skill for the workplace. You can apply the skills you learned working with groups to later work with colleagues. So it’s best to try to make a group the best experience you can because you’ll never know when it might come up.

Hello Bored Brain Damage. I’ll probably be a bit less bored lately since I am now going for a Masters in Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. Will less crafts get made now that I’ll be studying? Yea, probably. But, more writing about studying!

Frilly umbrella skirt from the back.

Let me start off by saying that I really need to start posting more often since I have done things which I feel I would actually like to document but haven’t. So to start that off, my latest sewing project that I finished was another skirt made with my Japanese fabric.

I looked around for a while for directions on how to make a frilly/ruffle skirt and couldn’t find anything I really liked for free so I ended up paying for a pattern from BurdaStyle for a Ruffle Skirt. It may have been because it was my first time using a pattern or because the pattern came from their German magazine, but I had a hard time understanding some of the terminology and directions. It worked out well with the help of the internet, it just took me a bit longer then it should have.

Quality wise, I think this skirt came out well. My only problem was that I didn’t have enough of the blue umbrella fabric for all the frills and then I went with yellow for the other color. After is started coming together I realized I might have preferred to go with another blue. Oh well. This one is just a bit louder then my clothing usually is. I may decide later to alter the center flounce and replace it with blue fabric, but for now it’s staying this way.

I also realized about halfway through that I cut up the frills wrong so that the umbrellas were upside down.

upside down umbrellas

So now it kind of looks like it’s raining umbrellas (oh and the rain drops are upside down too).

For my next project after the elephant skirt, I decided to use this strawberries fabric I had previously bought to make an apron. I looked around for different patterns (including trying to come up with my own) before I found this one in a book called Amy Butler’s In Stitches which I liked.

This was a fun project since I learned new techniques but at the same time didn’t have to deal with body measurements. I feel like I’m getting better at sewing (less pulling the fabric through as opposed to just letting it feed) which will get me one step closer on my next project.

So here’s a few pictures of the apron which ultimately was part of a birthday gift for my friend Anna (other parts of gift will be documented here later since also hand made).

Close up of pocket which was the first part sewed. My stitching did improve from this later on.

Bottom edge, you can see some improvement in my stitches, but still need work.

how it looks worn.

Yesterday I went to the Renegade Craft Fair here in San Francisco despite deciding during their winter version that “I think I’m over it”. I may prefer the summer version to the winter one, there seems to be an interchangeable ratio of dogs to kids during the seasons, with dog owners preferring the summer Renegade.

And so, on to sharing some of the goodies I got.

And not from Renegade but purchased the same day…

button waist

I did enjoy wearing my skirt out once these last touches were added, only complaint is it gets super wrinkled from sitting!

You can't tell, but I'm wearing my "make d0 and mend" necklace in honor of my sewing.

(Make do and mend)

San Francisco store

Up until around 2002 there was an FAO Schwarz in San Francisco. I used to love hanging out in this three storied store from an appropriate age (elementary school) all the way through college. How great was it going to a place that although was about making money, also provided the opportunity to really feel like you were taking a break from real life and going to a magical land filled with toys and candy. Sadly, it did not last, you know, due to that whole “making money” thing. I was able to make it to the FAO in Las Vegas before it closed a couple of years ago too but it already had that deserted feel to it and I was sad to find out they did not have the singing clock ala San Francisco. Hopefully by the time I finally visit New York, the last remaining FAO will still be there.

Here’s a video of the awesome song that would play constantly in the store using about the saddest picture ever (not the SF store either):

2. Cartoons

More specifically the weekday afternoon cartoons put out by Disney and Warner Brothers in the late 80s early 90s.  Yet again, I was still watching these at an age when it was no longer “appropriate” but enjoyed immensely non the less. On the WB end there was Tiny Toon Adventure’s, Animaniacs, and the short lived Histeria! Disney gave us Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Tale Spin, Darkwing Duck, and two of my all time favorites, Recess and Pepper Ann. The WB cartoons let me know that being weird and knowing way too much about pop culture was cool, while the Disney cartoons gave me the time to still feel young and innocent when sometimes the rest of life told me I had to grow up.

Histeria! – better then history class.

Pepper Ann – “Who is she, and why does she have her own song?”

3. Record Stores

San Francisco Virgin Megastore

The great teenage tradition of hanging out in record stores is pretty much gone. I have specific memories of passing so much time at Tower Records, Sam Goody, and the Virgin Megastore either listening to music, reading magazines, or just wondering the aisles looking at things. I can remember at what locations I bought specific albums and where I was in my life when I bought them. I have no such memories of downloading an album from the internet. Yes there are still independent record stores around, and yes I realize “the death of the music industry” has been written about before, but I can’t help but feel bad for kids now who won’t have these experiences. You can probably add bookstores to this as well (RIP Borders).

I recently finished knitting my first sweater and I have to say, it wasn’t too bad! The biggest annoyance may have been at the point when I thought I was done with the sweater, wore it to work, and while there noticed there was a slight difference in color between the front and the back which must have happened while blocking it.

Besides that, the actual process of knitting the sweater was pretty easy. This was knit top down and in the round so I barely had to sew any pieces together (just the under seam of the sleeves). Didn’t really make many changes to the original pattern except I made the sleeves a bit longer. At the point when you are supposed to add the band to the sleeves, I just began knitting with the original color and didn’t cast on any extra stitches. I then knit in stockinette (since it was no longer in the round) for 20 rows, beginning with K and after the last P round, I switched colors and knit in the seed stitch as called for.

Oh and about the color difference while blocking? I washed the sweater again and this time REALLY squeezed the water out before leaving it to dry and it came out fine! Plus I got to step on it which was pretty fun.

My boyfriend and I have been watching a lot of “Hoarders” on Netflix lately which always has the effect of making me want to get rid of things. I’d been saving old graphic tees, mostly from shows, that no longer fit me but I couldn’t get myself to get rid of. I’d been saving them for some sort of project, most likely a quilt but I realized it was highly doubtful that would happen so off they go!

But I can’t just get rid of them! So how do you keep something while getting rid of it at the same time? By taking pictures of course! Rather then post all the pictures here individually I decided to play around with some collage software which is how I got the picture above. To add to this, here are a few close ups of the harder to see t-shirts:

Pipettes shirt from London show. I don't think I could ever lose enough weight that this would fit me again but I'm keeping it for now.

from Belle and Sebastian show at the Hollywood Bowl

so true Art Brut, so true...

Graham's artwork (I may not be able to part with this one)

Kaiser Chiefs shirt

Hmmm… after writing all these blurbs I may need to add more to this project. Commentary to go with the rest of the shirts? Shall wait for another day.

This is my first sewing project from scratch involving a wearable. I’d only modified pieces of clothing before so I was a bit scared to ruin my fabric. So far it’s not too bad. It’s not perfect and I’ve learned a few things, but I can definitely wear it and it’s not ruined. I’ve almost finished except a few finishing touches, including possibly adding a different fabric border on the bottom since it came out a bit shorter then I like. Here are a few pictures as an idea of what the skirt would look like with the border.

Skirt layed flat. I had to add darts since it was too loose in the waist. I think I put the folds the wrong way though...

Close up of pattern combo. What do keys have to do with elephants? No idea, but I liked the colors.

Wearing it close up...

...and from a bit further away.