well, i discovered a new shop called dots today. it was a mixed blessing. on one hand, i got some great deals! on the other hand, i almost lost my mind trying to figure out what size was gonna work for me. i ended up with a few great bargains. two shirts, a cami, and a pair of pants for under $60. not as good as some, but it's pretty good for me! i love the shirts and the cami will be very useful for layering. i'm not 100% sure about the pants, though. and i have another dress that i'm not sure i should keep b/c i think it might not be the best look for me. so what do you think?

DIY Fatshionistas:

About a year ago, I posted these directions for making a miniskirt with pleated trim out of a pair of fatigues or cargo pants. But I no longer owned the Mark I version of the skirt.

Just today, I completed DIY Skirt Mark II, in which I didn't significantly adapt the design but I did work much faster. I also had more ripping to do at the start becuase I used "sky" camo fatigues from the military surplus*, and there were double-layers of fabric for reinforcement on the booty and the knees. I ripped these off before constructing the skirt and trim.

I also ripped the entire inseam of the pants open and sewed the inseams into a flat skirt front and back (step 7) before cutting them off into the proper length skirt (step 5).

Another thing I did was to cut the rear length about an inch longer than the front length, then gently slope the hem length at the sides, because I have an estimable booty and a high waist in the back. This allows the hem to hang relatively straight when the skirt is on me (thanks Utilikilts for the idea! Their "Contour Cut" is meant for guys whose waistline is low in the front due to a beer belly, but the effect is the same.) Because fitting dummies almost never have booty unless you've done a custom form or padded yours out (I have padded mine at the boobs but have not yet managed her belly and rear end, so the skirt sits a bit loosely on her), you'll need to check this several times in a mirror.

This is the result:



I didn't remember to start taking pics until I had the legs already sliced off and the base skirt pieced together, and I forgot to get a shot of the pleat-marking process, but there are some progress shots available at my gallery here. You can see on the pre-trim shots that I marked a hem, then cut the skirt about 1.5 inches longer than my mark so I could check for length much later on. I eventually went with my original measurement and cut the skirt at my marks, but then overlapped the 3" wide trim by about an inch.

*Men's size XL, which accomodates my 38" waist and then some, so it can sit at my low waist instead of my natural waist. I know the shop I went to had XXL that went up to a 45 or 48" waist I think?

Character/Pairings: Jeb/Az
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: The end of the Mini
Summary: Jeb Cain reflects on how much can change in an annual of time.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Tin Man 'verse. Nothing and no one. Because (at the moment) I'm playing only with the Sci-Fi original characters.
By:

transgenic_girl 
Crossposted to:

jeb_az, personal journal.

several of you probably got this e-mail. no i'm not going to delve into the drama parts. i am simply going to post the invite here so those who know him can make their own decisions.

Doghood and Worthless' First Solo Art Exhibition Opening + Kiss Doghood Goodbye Party

An Invitation

Have you seen or heard about the IlluminOpArt that Worthless and I have been creating? We are having our first solo art exhibition at the "20 Goto 10 Gallery" in San Francisco. Our opening is in the evening of June 5th. I hope you can come.

News about my immigration status: In my first interview in 2004, an immigration supervisor read out loud a paragraph of a news article from BBC online about my advocacy action in Hong Kong, and then said to me, "This kind of thing pisses me off", and she vowed to impede my immigration application. For three years, I have been struggling legally but without success. I am being forced to leave the United States by mid-June this year and will probably not be allowed to return for 3 or 10 years, not even to visit.

It has been very depressing for me. I love you and I will miss you. If you are going to be in town and have nothing else to do that evening, I invite you to come to my farewell party and kiss me good bye.

Please mark this down on your calendar:

Doghood and Worthless' Art Opening & Doghood's Farewell
June 5th, 2008 (Thursday)
7:00 pm to 11:00 pm
20 Goto 10 Gallery
279 Geary Street,
San Francisco, CA 94102
http://twentygoto10.com/upcoming

Please feel free to forward this e-mail and bring friends with you.

Love and Peace,

Doghood the silly dog
doghood at gmail dot com

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/drunken-air-part-two.html

This is a film that Sharon Stiteler took yesterday of our bees buzzing around in my plum trees. I actually started wanting the bees because of the plums, because there were never any bees when they were in bloom...

http://flickr.com/photos/johno

12 shots of my friends Miko and Jo (luckinspades and jorhett)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johno/tags/mikoandjo/



Shots from around the Friday Night Social are uploading overnight.
Still to complete: The Twilight Vixen Revue performances from the Friday Night Social.

I think I might want to read Twilight. I hear that it's bad. Real bad. In fact, it's bad in a way that makes even the people who like it admit that it's bad. My students keep showing up with copies of the book and we have this discussion:

Me: So, is it any good?

My 12-year-old students: Well, it's kind of good but I'm three hundred pages into it and there's still no plot.

Me: Umm, how exactly can that be?

Students: Don't ask me, I'm just saying that nothing at all has happened in this book so far.

Me: Seriously? Not anything?

Students: Nada.

First of all, I'm so sorry to be asking for audition help here. But I have been looking all week and I am seriously at a loss here.

I'm a member of a summer stock company that starts up next week (YAY!), but here we have a series of auditions over the summer for our five shows. Everyone gets into at least two, usually, and when you aren't rehearsing you are building the set or hanging lights or something.

Anyway. Our first audition is for "Beehive: The 60s Musical" and "Jesus Christ Superstar", and our guideline is that they want us to sing a pop/rock song.

I'm not sure if they want a musical theater pop/rock song, or a "real" pop/rock song. I was going to just sing something 60s, but I'm pretty sure that every 60s song ever is *in* Beehive, which makes it difficult. I'm honestly just hoping to be in the ensemble of JCS... but I am a complete and utter loss for what to sing. I'm an alto... and generally I don't have this much trouble with auditions, as usually I am just looking for standard musical theater. But pop/rock has me thrown for a loop.

Anything? I seriously greatly appreciate any suggestions at all.

I don't suppose anyone has this dress in berry or teal in a 1X that they're willing to part with?

If not, does anyone know of anything in a similar style or color? I'm looking for a nice sundressish type dress to wear to my law school graduation in early June - something I can throw a cardigan over to wear to a nice dinner afterwards. I usually wear a 12/14 bottom, but I have 34G/H boobs that mess things up in terms of dress shopping; I've been going nuts trying to find something. Thank you all in advance!