Thursday, January 26, 2012

A Brush With An Internet Celebrity and More Qipao Construction Pictures

Link.

I'm still kind of in shock.

From here.
In case you didn't know (what, the superhero dresses weren't a dead giveaway?), I'm a huge geek. Some of the things I geek out about are dinosaurs, clever webcomics, and dystopian future literature. So when a friend alerted me that none other than Ryan North, the creator of Dinosaur Comics and the brain behind the very awesome short story anthology The Machine of Death, tweeted a link to my Superman dress, I think I fainted a little inside. Seriously, words cannot describe how flattered I am. I think the only higher level of nerd crush would be Sheldon Cooper, who's not even a real person, so yeah, this might be the epitome of a swoon-moment with a celebrity.

Besides spending a good portion of yesterday floating on clouds, I also worked on my next Sew Weekly Challenge: Make This Look. To be honest, I'm not loving my dress. I'm wondering if I should just finish it so as to avoid having a UFO hanging around, or just move on to the next project. The psychology of sunk cost makes me feel like maybe if I just worked on it a little longer, I might end up liking it. We'll see.

Frog and snaps to close up top, zipper on the side.
Anyway, I also took a few more pictures of the insides of my qipao, just in case anyone was curious. I'm always wondering what the insides of garments look like, so I love it when other sewists post those detail pics. If anyone's thinking of making their own qipao, hopefully it will help them out with visualizing the pieces. That said, I'm also putting up these photos partially to shame me into making my insides nicer.

Nicely sewn snaps, not so much with the frog.
To give you an idea of how the side closed up.
Also so you can see how I didn't finish washing out the marker.
I really like how underlining feels, but am not so keen on how it looks, since the stitching on the darts is visible. Although I guess if I used white thread it would be better, but still. I guess I could put an underlining and a lining, but I don't fancy that many layers underneath. Oh well. Maybe I should just wash out that marker; that might help make the insides more presentable!

Or I could just go back to thinking about how something I sewed made Ryan North happy.

7 comments:

  1. I know what you mean about washing out the fabric marker: I went to work yesterday in my new leopard print skirt, and someone asked me, "What's all that chaulky stuff on the front?". That would be chaulk. Where I had marked the centre front and centre back for dart positioning. D'oh.

    I have qipao envy, because I've never been able to find a RTW one that fits. I love the non-traditional fabric you chose, and the Escher-esque white flowers running into indigo flowers. It looks great on you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heh...I guess if you're a teacher, chalk on your skirt makes more sense. I just switched to chalk, thinking that it would be easier to remove post-sewing.

      I hope you do try a qipao! It's definitely a different sewing experience than the run of the mill modern Big 4 patterns!

      Delete
  2. I love Dinosaur Comics! They're the first thing that got added to my Google Reader when I figured out how that worked. Good on you for your brush with fame! Of course, I'd say you are somewhat of a celebrity yourself in sewing circles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh you are too kind! I think the celebrities of the online sewing world would be Gertie, Tasia, and Casey. But I'm so glad you know Dinosaur Comics! It's pretty awesome and hilarious.

      Delete
  3. Congratulations, my friend! How very exciting! That dress IS amazing, so I'm not surprised!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well done! Glad ur getting some recognition, next the world! I adore your geeky dresses!! XxxX http://thesecondhandrose.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to tell me your thoughts! I appreciate reading them and I try to reply to most, if not all, comments, especially when they are questions. I ask that you keep your comments polite, and if you're a spammer, don't bother because your comment will just be deleted! Also, if you're commenting on a post that's more than two weeks old, it will be moderated.