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The Damned Are Welcome Here

Tag: diy

  • ONE PROJECT DOWN AND TWO TO GO

    One of the Damned

    I bid thee welcome, Dear Damned Ones. I trust that your existences are filled with delight and mirth.

    I succeeded in the completion of the black linen shirt and I am joyous. Wore it last Friday to celebrate the birthdays of two most esteemed companions. There were seven of us in the party, and it was a most splendid occasion.

    Here’s a look at the front of the shirt. It is rather challenging to discern the happenings that transpire in this photograph, but I am quite certain you will easily grasp the essence of the matter.

    Here are two better pictures, though only by a trifling margin, of the sleeve lace and the neckline lace:

    The rhinestone eyes appeared with some distinction in real life, I am profoundly delighted to declare. Maybe I should make another shirt in white. The crochet will show up vastly superior to the black.

    To gain the completion of the linen shirt for Friday, I did toil with great diligence for the two previous days. Needed to finish it on Thursday so had time to give it a gentle cleansing. Was not able to partake of other pursuits during that time which left my modest lodgings somewhat worse for wear. Particularly the culinary chamber. I am happy to say it is a modicum improved this day.

    Now let us proceed to the spider jacket. The shoulder pads remain a trifle troublesome, but, fingers crossed, the solution will manifest forthwith. One shoulder pad is partly sewn in and partly pinned in and is acceptable, I daresay. Can I ask for more than that? Yes, but it is unlikely that I will be successful.

    For the Dali jacket, do I know where I’m going with this? Not really. Actually not in the slightest. Here is the second photograph added, showing some stitching around it.

    Please understand that the corners will be attended to.

    I do know that I want to have bigger swaths of the blue fabric and not so many fabric-printed pictures because of their stiff nature. What I have been giving considerable thought to is merely having outlines of the various objects in the paintings. For this one just above, have an outline of the sagging clock say. Just recreated line drawings of the paintings. Or maybe more elaborate designs. Dali’s moustache, say?

    Will need to get some pens to mark the lines of stitching. The kind of marker that disappears somehow, with heat or time, or whatever.

    Finally, a word of advice for those of you with a diminished acuity of vision. Always have a second pair of spectacles ready to spring into action should the first pair falter. The left arm of my reading glasses became unattached. I could not, for the life of me, fix them in any way, shape or form. So, for now, I’m wearing them taped to my face at the bridge. A nice long piece of tape that goes from the top of my brow to the tip of my nose. While I am sure it is exceedingly alluring to my face, it is most vexatious, indeed. Will have to purchase new reading specs tomorrow. This taped version is a most distressing burden.

    So, thank you, Dear Damned Ones. Such a pleasure to have you attend my little blog. My gratitude is without bounds.

  • PROJECTS ARE ACTUALLY COMING ALONG, JUST NOT QUICKLY

    One of the Damned

    Welcome, Damned. Lovely to see you again. Your presence warms my heart.

    So, I was ever so hopeful that I could get off my bum and get this post published three weeks ago. I already knew how to start, though maybe that was part of the problem. I was going to say “Would you look at that. She has a new blog post just two weeks after the last one. Miracles will never cease.” Yeah, well, that never happened. Can’t say I’m all that surprised, though. Why are things so hard?

    On the bright side, I bought a new sewing machine. A pretty good one, actually, for not much money. It’s a Singer Heavy Duty Mechanical and quite lovely. (Is “lovely” a proper description of a sewing machine? Don’t know, but I’m going with it.)

    I actually can give credit for this picture, for a change. It’s from Michael’s website, which is where I bought it. It’s the same one that YouTuber Prickly Alpaca bought for herself a while ago and she quite likes it. Since she sews a variety of fabrics and thicknesses of fabric, and doesn’t seem to have any complaints, thought I’d give it a try. Quite happy with it, so far.

    Can’t afford it, but I tell myself that I genuinely need it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    Anyway, started working on a new coat since I’ve had to put the Dali jacket away for a while. Have some black velvet and want to make a spider coat. Well, a coat with spider web decorations. Can’t make a coat out of actual spiders. No, that is definitely not in the realm of possibility. Nope, nope, nope.

    So, don’t want to do buttons and will have hooks instead. With an embroidered spider web and a little spider where each of the four hooks will be. Have eight of the little spider charms, but haven’t figured out other places put them. Except, maybe one dangling down the back somehow. So far, only designed the webs and prepped the fabrics, but it’s a start. Going to interline the velvet with flannel to make it nice and toasty warm for winter.

    Been working on the black linen shirt and think I made a decision about the lace. My sister found this absolutely wonderful crocheted doily on Pinterest and there’s someone on Etsy who sells the pattern. Just look at this wonderful design:

    The skull looks kind of scary. Prefer that to the somewhat cutesy skulls I’ve seen elsewhere. It’s designed by the very talented Ann Wanamaker. You can check it out along with her other stuff on her Etsy shop, Creative Works by Annie.

    Had originally thought to include black velvet ribbon with the lace, but not sure how that will work, now. But I will include several skeletons, altogether. Been working on a sample of the design in some size 10 crochet thread. So far, the pattern is good.

    Have actually started sewing the shirt while pretty much following the instructions on Vincent Briggs YouTube channel. He made an eighteenth-century “Pirate Shirt” sewn on a machine and so far it’s working well. I will say, he’s quite a strange boy, but that’s what I like best about him.

    Well, it seems as if I actually accomplished things recently. Hooray for me. I had hoped that writing these posts would push me to finish more. Guess that sort of happened, so not all bad.

    Thank you, dear Damned ones, for coming. Always nice to have you here.