Here's that rain lamp.

I promised in this post that I'd post pictures of the "rain" (oil) lamp once I got it set up. Well, here it is!

Shortly after I brought it home, I took the whole thing apart and cleaned up 30 years worth of... gunge. Then I put it back together and was SO excited when I switched it on and it worked. I left it on the kitchen counter overnight, in a deep tray, just in case. When I got home the next night, the tray was full of oil. D'oh! Upon examination I realized it's because I put too much oil in and the level was above the screw holes holding the reservoir to the base. Had to disassemble it AGAIN, which annoyed me to no end, and clean it up even more, because... oil everywhere. But now, she is beeyooootiful.

What's interesting about this one is that it is not a swag lamp, like I'm accustomed to seeing. Even the table-top versions don't usually have an upper light and shade. In fact, I can't find ANY information about this model. I mean, I know it's a Johnson Industries model, and the original stickers are still under the canopy. But I don't see any renditions of THIS model online anywhere. How is that POSSIBLE??

I got it at an estate sale a few weeks ago, and was actually considering modding it to take that top part OFF. I've wanted a swag-style rain lamp for a while, to be hung next to my door so visitors can immediately see how much class I've got. Exactly how much. But after some reading, I'm starting to think this lamp is especially collectible. Which isn't what I'm in it for, it's never what I'm in it for. Now that I've got it set up in my front room with the pig lamp -- PIG LAMP! -- I'm kinda digging the height the shade gives it. It runs great, but the oil isn't flowing as I'd like, so I may need to clean up a couple of the holes again.

Does anyone get the Carnivale reference?

An irrelevant aside.

I've been sick for the past few days in the weirdest way. I woke up 7am Wednesday morning stuffy, scratchy and sore, after having awoken many times during the night for funtimes coughing fits. I stumbled into the bathroom where I always have a bottle of Nyquil waiting for me -- yes, RED is the only way to be! -- to find about half a shot left. Dammit. Called off work and went back to sleep.

I'm one of those people who doesn't use an alarm clock. I didn't think that was all that unusual -- when I wake up, I just naturally know what time it is. I knew something was up when I re-awoke on Wednesday with no idea what time it was. I tested myself, lying there in bed trying to take a stab at it before looking at the clock. It could have been 9am. It could have been noon. It could have been 4pm for all I could tell. Turns out, it was about 1.30pm.

I rolled off the edge of my bed (it's a low bed) and directly into another coughing fit. I made it as far as the living room after a couple of tries, into the loving arms of my sofa and awaiting kitty, where after about a half hour, I fell asleep again. I woke up after another couple of hours, thought about getting something to eat, realized I had nothing in the house and standing upright made my chest/lungs really mad at me, so had a glass of water aaaaaand... back to sleep. Repeat that 3 or 4 times and that was my whole day Wednesday.

Thursday, I woke at the usual time, feeling... somewhat rebounded. Made it in to work and everything. You know what's really great? When you go to work and people stop in their tracks and say, "Ooooh, how are you feeling?" Feeling like I should have stayed home, I'm thinking. By and large, I felt *okay*, I just had the occasional coughing spat that made me really light-headed. Aside from that, I'm pretty sure I did my job and all... or maybe I was too dizzy to realize how much I was screwing up.

The best thing about making it to work on Thursday, though, was that I was able to also make it to the drug store. If they sold Nyquil by the drum... Got my hit, crashed out hard while trying desperately to watch "Project Runway." Dreamed about ostrich-propelled vehicles.

Friday morning, I figured I'd be good because, well, I made it out of the house Thursday after all! But I definitely did not... feel... right. For one thing, I'd slept on my back all night, flat on my back, and I was pretty sure I had not moved once in 8 hours. When I did move, I realized why that had probably been the case. Ugh. Everything sore, everything coughy. But the best part was when I groaned to myself. It was, like... subsonic. Have you seen the stories about this whole "secret language" of elephants, where they can ultra-low-rumble to each other over distances of miles? I'm pretty sure there's a bull elephant in Kenya who is wondering why he keeps hearing his name. Made me laugh. Which, of course, launched a coughing fit.

I called off work again, if for no other reason than just to have a record of me as a cartoon villain. Took another shot, flopped back over, direct to zzzzzs. And again, awoke thinking, what, noon? One? Ten am it was. No voice at all, probably forced out by the softballs taking up all that space in my throat. Took a nice warm shower and thought, okay, I've got the whole day here, I should at least be able to get something done around the place. I re-cleaned my oil lamp -- there's a post coming about that, honest -- and did a load of dishes. That was EXHAUSTING. Back to sleep. Woke up, had some popcorn chicken, aaaaaand... back to sleep. This is the weirdest "cold" or whatever it is that I've ever had. I mean, even the CAT is like, "Really? Sleeping again? I mean, I'm all for a good nap now and then, but are you EVER going to get off the couch?"

It's Friday night now, and I am just plain confused. At one point, I woke up on the sofa thinking it was the middle of the night, only to find the room bathed in sunlight. I'm as awake right now, at nearly midnight, as I've been in several days. I can't really tell whether I'm hungry (I hope not, because I've long since made it through all the chicken) or if I should take some more of the red stuff and corpse out for another 10 or 16 hours.

Well, since the very process of writing this launched me into another coughing fit, I'm going to go with... zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

What's this?

I spent what seems like all day cleaning this thing. Who recognizes it?

We now return...

Sorry about that. Glitch in the system. Eddies in the space-time continuum.

To make up for it, please to enjoy some random funny.

Ties still available!

There are still some ties available at my etsy store BrocadeLion.etsy.com. I'll let y'all know if I make a few Valentine Specials. Meantime, check these out.

Vintage Teal Floral Tie with Mermaid Embroidery

Vintage Tie with Burgundy/Red Heart-Keys Embroidery

Vintage Grey Tie with Ace of Spades Skull Embroidery

Vintage Blue Tie with Ornate Bird Skull Embroidery

Vintage Black Tie with Cave Horse Embroidery

Vintage Navy Blue Tie Goes to Eleven

But I'm still fond of you... oh-ho-ho...

Sooooo much to learn with the embroidery software, but I have learned a bit so far. This is the (original design, Smiths lyrics) embroidered detail on my crafting apron/toolbelt, which I've been meaning to make for, oh, decades, and finally got around to this weekend.

I would claim that I'll take better pictures to post some time, but I doubt I will -- I'll be too busy wearing the thing. Also, I'd post a tutorial if anyone asked.

I just realized how massively lazy this post makes me sound. Blame the fact that the climate control at my office is killing me ded -- it was, like, 50°F in here when I got here, and about 85°F now.*

*What? I NEVER exaggerate.

More adventures in resale.

The rare Mac/Value Village (er WORLD, whatever) crossover kill. "Speaker" indeed.

I just happen to have an original pair of Apple Pro speakers on my decrepit, but beloved, G4. One of only two speaker sets to my knowledge that will work with this thing.

I spotted the iSub from across the room, but really just because it looks like a jellyfish. Cleaned the dog hair and dead spiders out if it, plugged it in, and it is a GO.

$7.

There be ties here!

I've spent the past few weeks (months?) working with that bonus embroidery machine of mine -- Rudy? might be called Rudy -- working toward making this little announcement.

I've listed my first batch of custom-embroidered (which really just means I done did it myself) vintage ties on my dormant etsy site. Go check 'em out!

BrocadeLion.etsy.com

Craftster BEST OF 2009

Dig it.

My flamin' vinyl applique dress made it into the Craftster Best of 2009 listing.

I'm a Craftster Best of 2009 Winner!

P.S. Oh yeah, my first Skulls-n-Roses dress was a Craftster Best of 2007 winner as well. I guess 2008 was a slow year for me...

Snowy Monday Morning Interlude

I was sitting on the sofa, ironically uploading pictures from my camera, when this youngster strolled past the windows. I stopped the upload, quietly opened my front door, and even after looking directly at me, the two fawns continued to hang around. They were shortly joined by two more fawns and a doe. None of them cared that I stood there taking photos and video.

Almost worth getting snowed in...

Viva la Value Village

I love the random crap you can find at Value World (née Village). Yesterday I found this spool of steel ball chain (with strange plastic card holdery things) at the VV in Oak Park without a price on it. Usually I wouldn't bother, but I tracked someone down, who marked at it 80¢. Today I unspooled it and measured out almost 300 feet of ballchain. So. If I ever need it...

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU!

Custom Embroidery!

Got a chance to do a little work with some custom embroidery software over the past week or two, to generate PES patterns for my still-unnamed Baby Lock Sofia. No submissions? Really?

My best, most successful result so far. It's my MCB "logo." ;)

Cross-Promotion: Cinematic Titanic is coming to Detroit!

I posted about this over on motorcityblog, but I'm a giant nerd, so I want to post about it here, too.

Cinematic Titanic has been doing live shows for a while now, and they'll finally be coming to the Detroit area this February. Exciting! I'm not even being sarcastic!

Just got word yesterday that I'll be covering the gig for MCB, so I'm definitely going (and we'll probably be giving away some tickets when the date gets closer). It's going to be a huge treat to meet the guys, particularly Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu. But especially Joel. I admit it, I'm a Joel girl at heart.

And it'll be nice to be in a room that can appreciate my Dr Clayton Forrester t-shirt. For once.

The Mummies are here.

New additions!

First of all, there's this.

This is -- incredibly -- the fifth real animal skull I've put on display in my living room. It is the first, however, that came from my yard. (Though the second that I've cleaned myself -- bone only! I didn't skin anything.)

The lower jaw was still near the skull, all teeth intact, but the jaw broke in half when I retrieved it. It's a bit of a funny story, actually. My friend John was over, and when we were walking to my car, he said, "There's a pretty cool skull behind your garage."

I said, "Oh, I should check that out! ...pause... What were you doing behind my garage?"

"I knew you were going to say exactly that!" Let's just say he had his boy-type reasons for being back there.

Went back behind the garage, where I think I've never been in the time I've lived here, and there it was, sitting in a pile of leaves, almost entirely clean. From another skull I have, I recognized it as a raccoon; looking at the teeth, I'm guessing this guy died of old age. I cleaned it up with peroxide, although I haven't taken the next step of gluing the lower jaw together and then gluing and sealing the teeth. It will join the others at that point. When it's ready, I'll take another picture of this one next to the other raccoon I have -- it makes an interesting comparison.

But! I'm too excited about this right now to mess around with bones! Check it out.

I've been waiting to post about this. Early in the summer, I entered a t-shirt reconstruction contest online. The grand prize was a computerized embroidery machine, the Baby Lock Sofia. I posted photos of my three-tee hoodie and then waited. The winners were to be voted on by visitors to the site over a several-week period. Every time I checked in, there were more and more entries, and it really looked like I was falling pretty far behind.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I got email from a representative from the parent company of Baby Lock congratulating me and asking for my shipping address! I was so surprised, I was literally in disbelief. I had a thought for a moment that it was someone trying to scam an address out of me... but I checked the contest site, and sure enough, there was my project, front and center. I won!

This is kick-ace for two reasons. First of all, I've wanted a full-bore embroidery machine for the past couple of years. The problem is they're expensive and I couldn't justify the cost. (Plus, there are so many options, I'd need a machine embroidery mentor just to decide on a model.) Second, and maybe even more significantly, this wasn't a random drawing. I won this machine because people voted on something I made. Forgive me for using a somewhat abused word, but it was seriously validating.

Ain't it a beaut? I told pretty much everyone I know about it that day, but didn't want to say anything here until I had the machine in hand. (So so cynical.) It arrived yesterday, and it's killing me that I can't set it up completely and spend the next several days elbow-deep in machine embroidery. There's going to be a serious learning curve involved. Not to mention I have to find a good place for it! I'm considering making the radical move of displacing my (ancient) desktop computer and putting the embroidery machine in its place, in my work studio. This would be the first time in my adult life that I didn't have a major desktop computer set up.

Man. When did I become such a giant craft/sewing dweeb anyway?

Well, wherever it's going to live it's going to need a new name. I mean, "Sofia"? As if. Going to need something much more suitable to join its new brethren, Nigel (the Husqvarna workhorse) and Roland (the Jaguar serger).

But right now? I've gotta finish my ballgown. Pictures of that are to come...

A side note: Motorcityblog.net

I've never mentioned this before here, and now seems as good a time as ever. I am a sometime-contributor, frequent-collaborator at one of the most trafficked entertainment blogs in Detroit. You can find us all here:



And my branded posts in particular here:

The Ambivalence of Halloween

Halloween provokes the very definition of mixed feelings in me.

On the one hand, I love it. Fall is my favorite time of year, and for the past several, I've taken Halloween-week off from work. It's a great time for a road trip, and there are always wonderfully macabre and hoakishly paranormal shenanigans to be found. As Halloween becomes a more legit/adult holiday -- by which I mean selling opportunity -- the gewgaws and thingamajigs and other decorative trappings have improved greatly, which turns out to be important for someone whose primary decorating scheme seems to be "skulls." It's also the time of year I buy all my socks. (Yes, all of my socks feature bats or black cats or dancing skeletons. It's true.)

On the other hand, I hate it. Halloween is for stitchers/crafters/skull aficionados what New Year's Eve is to serious drinkers: Amateur night. Everyone figures that because I sew, I'm going to have this awesome costume idea/execution that I've been working on since June. "Ooh, you're so creative... and you do all that sewing... What are you going to be? This'll be great!" That's a lot of pressure! And why do I have to BE anything?

I'm not so crazy about the idea that I need to come up with something particularly funny or punny or topical or gruesome. How about if I just make something cool? Or pretty? Or elaborate? A big period costume? Well, if I do THAT, then I really do have to go all out, being slightly compulsive (oh come on, it's another trait stitchers tend to share -- that and pack-rattitude). And I've never really done that sort of big project. Plus, the kinds of places I'd go, the parties I'd attend, aren't exactly the... elaborate sorts of affairs.

Except maybe this year.

I'm considering a formal, masks-mandatory masquerade for devil's night. And that means... formal. Not just formal, but dark -- in attitude -- formal. Well. Let's see what we can do about that.

This is the "costume" I'm considering.

And this is the color.

But with black accents and other nasty details (to be expanded upon later). I ordered both fuchsia sateen and twill -- 10 yards of each! -- from Fabric.com yesterday; I'll decide which one I want to use once they arrive. It's a fairly large project for me-of-the-instant-gratification, so send me some encouragement, or at least wish me luck.

The Skin Corset

In Vegas, on one of the shuttles to or from somewhere, wearing a dress that I'd made, I suddenly decided that I wanted to make a corset. Mostly I thought it would be a cute addition to that dress -- my octo dress, which I still need to photograph -- in a bright yellow vinyl. When I got home, I received an announcement for the Marquis de Sade Ball the upcoming weekend. That solidified the project and the deadline. I can make a corset in, like, 3 days, right?

Truth be told, I've made a corset once before; Simplicity 9769, affectionately known as the Giant Cock Corset, as I built it from upholstery fabric featuring colorful roosters on a burgundy field. It was sort of a test to see how hard it is to do, and what kinds of materials I could use. Looking at it now, I can see how I fouled it up a bit. I had used plastic needlepoint canvas in place of real boning, and that doesn't impart much structure at all. Plus it's a little big.

For some reason, I thought it would be easy to find highlighter-yellow vinyl at Joann. Where did I get that idea? Turns out, I can get vinyl in any color I want, as long as it's black.

I dug through the upholstery flats and found some random vinyl in there, but certainly no yellow, and really nothing that was all that interesting. Except for this one that I found on the red tag clearance table. It was an upholstery vinyl, big leather texture on one side with a sort of flannel backing. And it was kind of... pinky beige. Quite... fleshy. I picked it up and put it down and picked it up and thought, "This is a very unfortunate color. Or... it's a very fortunate color. Gruesome." Finally I just bought the stuff. Made for a different idea than the bright yellow one, so, new plan.

Because I had less than a week to make the thing, I didn't have enough time to order supplies, even if I'd wanted to. That's okay, I like making it up anyway. I've read about a lot of different things people have used for corset boning. I wanted something with some strength, but it's not like I'm doing tight-lacing or waist-training, so I didn't need to get carried away. My first thought was to get some of the biggest zip ties I could get. Lowe's has 175-lb test zip ties in 18" lengths for something like $4.50/8. They were a little narrow and I'd have preferred they be stiffer, but at least they were immediately available and not horribly expensive -- although I would have to buy 3 packages.

Then I remembered someone suggesting that I grab some of the steel banding that lumber yards use to bind pallets of board. Since I was already at Lowe's, I traipsed over to the lumber department to discovery that they use plastic strapping on their pallets, and it seemed kinda wide. Hm, not what I had in mind. On the other hand, plastic might be easier to work with and I wouldn't have to be concerned with treating the metal to keep from rusting. When I found a strip that had been snipped open, I yanked it down and had a closer look. Turned it to be relatively stiff, just over .5" wide, and I was convinced I could cut it with a good pair of utility scissors. Each section was right around 10 feet, and I knew I was going to need close to 20 feet total, so I looked around for more. That strapping is like a lot of other things -- you never notice it until you're looking for it, then you see tons of it. I grabbed, shoot I don't know, probably 100 feet in the end. Just bundled 'em up in a big loop. On my way out, a cashier was looking at me sideways, and I said, "You don't mind I take these, yeah?" She kinda sneered, "Uh, no." So I got my material for free, without stealing. For once.

Taking the measurements from the pattern info, I measured, marked and cut 20 strips, rounding the ends with scissors to avoid the pokies. Easy.

Corsets are typically made from only a few panels. Got 'em cut out and stitched together, careful about how things were pinned. As we know from other vinyl adventures, pinning mars vinyl, but you can always keep the pins within the seam allowance. Normally you'd want to do flat-felled seams here for strength and... flatness. But all those layers of vinyl get pretty thick. So instead I flattened both seam allowances to one side and top-stitched with my trusty Teflon foot, then trimmed the excess nice and tight.

The pattern calls for twill tape as boning casings, but the plastic strapping was actually wider than the steel bones would have been -- just a touch under the width of extra-wide double-fold bias tape that's been opened up. What a coincidence! (Oh there are no coincidences in math.)

I opened up that bias tape and stripped it over the seams, pinning just through the flannel backing, then stitched close to the edges. More bias tape went roughly through the middles of the panels for still more boning. More boning! Can never get enough boning. This was fun because this was one of those situations where you have to put a layer of tissue paper between the vinyl and the sewing machine so it doesn't get all skippy. No pics of that, but you can take my word that it was a bit of a pain in the arse. Sometimes sewing is a lot like painting -- an hour of prep, 10 minutes of work, an hour of cleanup. Pulling out all the tissue paper was kinda like that.

The previous time I had made this pattern -- the Giant Cock Corset mentioned earlier -- I used a big zipper for the front closure. I like zippers. I was thinking about going the same route with this corset, but struggled with how completely non-18th century appropriate that would be. Not that anything else I was wearing would be... but I do like playing along. As with the boning, I knew I wouldn't have enough time to order a traditional busk, but it occurred to me to call the better fabric store in town, Haberman in Royal Oak, because they have a bridal salon. Turns out, they do have busks in stock -- for $35. If there is any theme that carries through most of my projects, I think you'd agree with me that that theme is Cheap. So I didn't see making that investment. Realistically my choices were zipper or... nothing. I went with nothing. Thought it would be slicker.

As for the rear lacing, I had some two-part grommets here already (and what's the difference between grommets and eyelets anyway? are the grommets the two-part and eyelets the ones without the backing ring?). I took the two bones that were to go in the back edges and drilled evenly-spaced holes -- and how much do I love garment projects that involve power tools? When I installed the grommets, I skipped half the holes that I'd drilled -- there are 9 lacing holes in the corset now, but there are, in fact, 17 holes available. Just in case.

After the grommets were in and all the bones in place, my old friend extra-wide double-fold bias tape finished the top and bottom edges. And that's it! Fairly rigid, nicely heavy duty corset! Here's the price breakdown, as I remember:
Clearance vinyl: $3 for 1 yard
Extra-wide double-fold bias tape: 3 packages (1 for casings, 2 for edging) at around $2/pkg
Plastic boning: Free
Grommets: On hand
Round waxed cotton cord: $4.50 for about 5 times as much as I needed

As usual, the piece looks better on me than it does on the dummy, but Heddy is wearing the same outfit that I wore to the Ball Saturday night; that is a black vinyl pencil skirt. The corset is quite comfortable, although getting into it was... a bit of a challenge. I figured if I got it mostly right I could borrow someone's slave once at the event, for purely wardrobe purposes. You can see that I tied it in the front, so I was able to keep it well adjusted. Well, enough so that whenever I dropped anything, I had to have someone else pick it up for me. A small price to pay, I'd say.

My only "complaint" at this point is that it's too plain. Because it was largely a test, and was in a bit of a hurry, I didn't do anything decorative to it. I really want to play up the fleshy aspect of it. I had considered doing some semi-random Frankenstein-style stitches to make it look like the panels were pieced together from smaller pieces of skin. But I also thought it would be cool to have someone draw some old tattoo-style art on it. We'll see what I wind up with before it hits the city again the next time.

Footsies

The more I get the hang of using my adjustable bias binding foot, the more I love it.

Are you dying to know what I'm making there? I'm dying to show it, but I'm busy packing, and it's coming with me.