Spent the weekend in Chicago with the Stranglers...

For those interested, I wrote an extensive column about going out to Chicago to see the Stranglers last weekend, 7-8 June. The column, an audio clip of JJ Burnel speaking with me, a video of the band, and my photoset can be found at my other blog here.

Never let it be said I'm not a content producer. :)

The Stranglers Embroidered Jacket

Yesterday I created a machine embroidery version of the iconic rat image from The Stranglers debut album, "Rattus Norvegicus." I had purchased this vintage white denim jacket at resale for exactly this project -- I didn't expect hooping the jacket to be such a major PITA! That zipper complicated everything, but that's exactly where I wanted the rat to be. Eventually I got it hooped up, and the stitching looks great.

The Stranglers are easily one of my top-5 all-time favorite bands. I saw them their last time in Detroit, which was twenty years ago (ow my mortality)! I've been super-excited for this show for months now, and wanted to make something to wear that was appropriate and an in-joke wink.

I'm happy with how the stitching turned out, risky as it was, jamming the jacket in that hoop. I woke up this morning super-excited for this show...which is now postponed until September. D'oh!

ADDENDUM:
I was too excited to see The Stranglers to risk somehow missing them when they come back through my town in the fall, so I drove out to Chicago this weekend to see them. I had originally intended to drive out Friday morning, see the Friday night show, and then head home Saturday early afternoon, but the show promoters were so fun, friendly, and generous, they invited me to come to the Saturday show as well -- which I did, thus giving this jacket a two-day debut. And I have to say, it was a smash hit. I didn't expect that the band would be selling their OWN embroidered jacket -- a very cool black work jacket (which I am somehow forgetting whether it was Carhartt or Dickies) -- which prompted a couple of people to ask me "how'd you score a WHITE one?"

I kept telling everyone it was a "limited edition...of one."

Check out this monsterrific new game...

A good friend of mine is doing something really cool, and everyone should see it.

He has designed this board game -- his second -- and he's doing the Kickstarter thing to fund it and get it out to The Peoples.

Ben is a monster guy; he knows almost as much about monsters as I do. And this game is all about monsters: zombies, vampires, werewolves, and worst of all, post-apocalyptic dudebros. It's called Undead Apocalypse, and it looks pretty sweet. I don't understand much about how it plays -- I don't play these kinds of things -- but it LOOKS, as I say, pretty sweet. It's worth it for the werewolf figure alone. 

Yeah, okay, I admit I'm biased... not because Ben is a friend of mine, but because I'm a secret werewolf. Evidently.

Werewolf

Grab the avatar image below to show that you are on Team: Werewolf
Which Apocalyptic Leader Are You?

Batty Bag

It seems that however many bags a person has, she'll always have a couple of go-tos. In my case, there's this painted denim bracelet-bag that I got at a resale store which tends to be my first choice for nights out. Not because it's fancy, but because it's small (but just the right size for needs and extries), indestructible, and the bracelet closures mean I can cram it on my wrist and not worry about it for the rest of the evening, no matter how blurry it gets.

The problem with that bag is that the motif -- "LOVE HURTS" -- is, how can I say it, very ... shit, what's that dooshy t-shirt brand? You know the one I mean. Yeah, it's very THAT. Plus the metal bracelet rings can get a little uncomfortable.

So, I sketched out a similar design, and took a couple of swings at it myself. After 3 or 4 prototypes, I decided to go whole-hog and try it in vinyl. (Those of you who work with vinyl will understand that it's a very different [faux] animal.) I'd already embroidered on vinyl with my dear Rudy and knew it was a great base for open designs. I had this adorable scrollwork bats design from Urban Threads (of course), and after editing the eye-colors, I stitched it out on some pebble-texture upholstery vinyl I had lying around.

And it turned out so! good!

I assembled it with some night bats quilting fabric I had in the stash, and added a magneto purse snap for a little extra security.

It needs a little tweaking to deal with the multiple folded vinyl layers, but this version of it is very usable. The way it works is that it can be carried as a regular wristlet, or -- and this is my favorite -- the wrist strap can be fed through a D-ring at the opposite side to round the bag off and make it bullet-proof.

It's a killer little bag that I don't have to worry about losing, falling open, or setting it into something wet. If only I could say the same thing for the rest of my wardrobe.

2 New Leggings...Pairs

Man, I love this spandex. LOVE. IT. I'm going to make another 100 pairs of leggings from this stuff, because it's perfect summer wear. You know how some fabrics just always feel cool? Not because they are flowy, or ventilated, or wicking, or any other weird thing... it's just magic. Like the way powdered sugar feels cool in your mouth. Slinky spandex has that same kind of effect. And the new printed patterns? Spectacular. I whipped these up this weekend.

PS Just because catalogs show women wearing leggings with nothing more than a t-shirt, doesn't mean that's how they're supposed to be worn. They're just trying to show the goods, just like they do with pantyhose. You'd wear a skirt (or something) with pantyhose, right? So, wear something over your leggings, too, for crissake.

Embellished Skirt

Been putting stuff together for my latest convention, the American Atheists 50th anniversary con in Austin, TX, this weekend.

I always feel better-represented in new environs when wearing something I made. I made a new shirt for this trip, with some beautifully soft knits, but it's not all that exciting to anyone but me. The main piece is actually an embellished skirt.

As I've mentioned before, I'm just crazy for my embroidery machine (my dear Rudy). One of the major challenges in working with it, though, is lettering. It's very difficult to get exactly the right tension balance for any small/detailed stitch work, but lettering is particularly devillish because any flaw is so screechingly obvious.

But I loves me some words, so I decided what I wanted was a great quote, on an awesome background, added as a detail to a skirt I already own and wear (so it'll be more than a one-time-garment).

I started with the fabric. The last time I was at Joann, I'm pretty sure I'd looked for this "universe" fabric and didn't find it. So I wasn't even thinking about it when it jumped out at me from the quilting department. I just love the colors and the...impossibility of the design. Grabbed a yard. Next came the skirt. The last time I purged my closet, I gave a friend 27 skirts that I no longer wore. I'm not exaggerating, that's the real number (she never wears pants, so this was a windfall for her). Even so, I have a whole rail of skirts left -- what can I say, they're the easiest thing to make, and now that I have a system down for making slinky leggings, I wear skirts pretty regularly myself.

Point is, I had a lot of options.

I chose this burgundy denim, as it coordinated nicely with the jeweltones in the quilting fabric.

Next, the quote. Speaking of options...
There are a lot of writers and thinkers whose words I would happily wear. Because ol' Rude has a 100mm x 100mm size limit, I needed to find a favorite that was pretty short, but still related to the overall design AND the conference. This Sam Harris quote from "Free Will" is one I especially like (whether or not it jibes with the overall point of the book...discussion for another time), and struck me as being quite apropos.

I found a nice little embellishment, edited it, made it 2-color, fit the quote in (I don't want to hear anything about the kerning JIM), and stitched away.

The finished apx 4" trim was intended to fit along the lines of one of the pockets in the front. The pocket is still completely accessible, and buttonable. With that stitched down, I decided to take a couple of particularly cool illustrations from elsewhere on the leftover fabric and place those into the back pockets.

Again, the pockets are functional and buttonable. All I did was rip the inner stitching from the trim around the pocket (that Gingher seam ripper...manoman), carefully trim a piece of the quilting fabric to fit under the edge (with a hem at the top pocket opening) and restitch the trim. They look perfect. [pat pat]

So if any of you heathens in Texas this weekend see this walkin' by, be sure to say hello.

Oh! I forgot to mention my favorite comment when showing a friend what I was working on. He said, "My, you have a lot of space in those back pockets." Wakka wakka!

Moment of fear...

Have you ever had it happen where you are alone, but in public, maybe having a quick lunch at a local cafe, when something startling happens, something to make the entire cafe jump -- like perhaps a large boom sounds outside, or the power suddenly goes off -- and immediately when it's righted, everyone looks around in embarrassed relief, and maybe you lock eyes with a stranger and shrug and giggle in a "whew! aren't we silly!" sort of way?

I think what that moment is really saying is "I thought for a moment that we may have only had 90 seconds left to live, and I'm letting you know that you are the one I'd have spent that time humping."

chicken man

Chicken Man (with apologies to EAPoe)

It was warm in fall and far from home,
      in a port city down by the sea,
where was met a man fully stark of dome
      whom people would gather to see;—
And this man knew not how fate would lead
      to him giving a chicken to me.

I was a guest and he was well-known
      at this conference down by the sea,
but I watched him speak and my notes read "rrrow"
     as he stood on the dais before me.
By evening I knew would come the event
      that would introduce he and me.

The evenings were ours to explore the streets
      of the old city there by the sea,
to talk of hoodoo and grisgris and far-flung adventures
      and the nature of reality.
So that in the depths of the lengthening night
      I asked him to come with me,
to further explore the growing affection
      even a three-legged pig could see.

We laughed in the dark and continued to talk
      although long days had made us giddy—
yes!—that must be the reason that he exclaimed
     "I have slain a monster!" with glee.
"Tell me, tell me!" I begged, as he pressed me downward.
      "Read my fucking book" growled he.

So the conference ended, and our paths diverged hence
     me to my hollowed-out city—
     he to his red-dusted kitty—
And neither the angels of providence
      nor demons of productivity
Could ever dam our excited exchange
      via every technology.
 
Then on my favorite day, the PO wrote to say
     that they held a package for me.
In the midst of the crowd, I laughed out loud;
      the man had sent a chicken to me.
Of posters and postcards, of ties and surprises,
of the strangest exchanges and best interchanges,
     I will always hold dearest my plump Little Betty—
     and the man who gave a chicken to me.

 — July 2012