I Promise, Sewing Has Been Happening

It's not just been all making up ridiculous blog awards and drawing on the iPad here, it's just that the sewing I've done hasn't been photographable yet. The pair of bodies was coming along swimmingly (if somewhat tediously -- all those boning channels!) until I discovered that I was three bones short. And hardware stores aren't open round the clock, so I had to wait to get more cable ties. Also, does anyone else find it awesome that there are bones in my pair of bodies? I love sewing terminology!

I've also been working on my Easter dress, which I'm not even sure it will be warm enough to wear on Sunday, as I will be going back to The City for my brother's baptism. And everyone knows that, as Mark Twain never actually said, the coldest winter is a summer in San Francisco. What that makes April in SF, I don't know, but let's just say that my Easter dress is a flimsy little unlined cotton thing. But! It has sleeves! Of sorts. And it's got a slim skirt! So there you have it, at least it's not a repeat of every other dress I've made, ever.

Speaking of which, a hearty thanks to all of you who had such nice things to say about my failed Peggy dress, and who encouraged me to go on making the same type of dress if that's what suits my figure best. I'm still not sure what I think, as there's a tiny niggling voice in the back of my head that says if I'm not moving on to trousers and coats in silk and wool, I'm not progressing as a seamstress. If only the thrift stores here in The City of Culver City sold bedsheets made of more challenging and sumptuous fabrics, and not just cotton-poly blends! I do have one piece of very nice thrifted wool yardage, but it's just too daunting to think about just yet -- the pre-steaming, the thick seams, the fact that I would have to use a suitably nice lining and not just muslin, the unlikelihood of ever thrifting more if I mess up, and oh, that it's going to be summer soon? It's so much easier to just sew up fun sundresses that average $5 apiece. Tanit-Isis was right, this is the absolute worst time of year to be swearing off sleeveless sundresses.

Please excuse my prattling. Here, have some pictures of animals behaving cutely instead (courtesy of our trip to the SD zoo for spring break):

Polar bear butt! *snicker* It's swimming with a bone!

Elephants hanging out in an awfully futuristic-looking enclosure. It looks like a Planet of the Elephants movie or something.

But if you zoom in, it turns out that the elephant on the left is actually telling a hilarious joke to the other elephant,
who is not amused at all.

Or maybe the elephant was just reciting some of Ogden Nash's ridiculously clever poetry about other zoo animals:

The Lion 
Oh, weep for Mr. and Mrs. Bryan!
He was eaten by a lion;
Following which, the lion's lioness
Up and swallowed Bryan's Bryaness. 

The Panther
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.

And lest you think I am too felid-obsessed:

The Praying Mantis
From whence arrived the praying mantis?
From outer space, or lost Atlantis?
I glimpse the grim, green metal mug
That masks this pseudo-saintly bug,
Orthopterous, also carnivorous,
And faintly whisper, Lord deliver us. 


I do love me some cleverly rhymed poems.