Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Frogs As We Make Them Back Home


It's been almost twenty years since I've made frogs. They're so fun to make. These particular ones look like spiders, don't they? 

The most important part of the frog clasp is that round turk's head knot. You can see it more clearly in the photo below, in which the two halves are apart. Never mind what the froggy-looking portion looks like - that's just for show - the knot has to be done right or the clasp won't work. I have a tutorial for you, by Mum herself, no less!. But not today. 

Speaking of Mum, we had a bit of a chin-wag on the phone this morning, and she dissected my appalling qipao blouse (which I invited her to see on the blog). She said, quite succinctly, that it simply didn't fit, period. And then we went on to bemoan the challenges of working with
  • stiff, un-weighty, un-drapey, un-give-y brocade, which is a bit like draping with a plastic sheet
  • our particular body shape (we are both very similar), which is totally not the traditional skinny Asian figure for which qipaos/cheongsams are designed
  • darts that are clearly wrong.

She conceded, "people who don't sew won't know the difference."
I counter-conceded, "people who don't sew qipaos even more won't know the difference."

It's true, though. If you haven't seen a well-fitted qipao, you'd probably think I'm being hard on myself. That doesn't change the fact that I still can't stand to even look at Fleur blissfully wearing it whenever I pass her by in the sewing room. Well, better her than me. Shudder.

So I'm going to take a break from it and come back to it after Christmas. And meanwhile make a couple more pairs of frogs. After all, one doesn't work on something from which one suffers a gag reflex when one can be hanging out with the kids, doing happy advent things, right?

8 comments:

  1. Right! Absolutely!

    The frogs are awesome!

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  2. The frogs are beautiful! Sorry about the fit issues.

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  3. Yay!! Can't wait for the frog tute!

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  4. Lovely arachnid frog :) The knot tutorial will be awesome for sure!

    Also, have you heard of this company called Tsuchinoco? Its at http://tsuchinoco-kids.com/?lang=en and if you don't already know it, you'll like it - its all about cardboard!

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  5. You're such a tease! Not today indeed! Also, how do you say qipao? Keepow? Really no idea here in Houston.

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  6. You make me laugh! And I never thought about MAKING frogs. I just assumed you had to buy them from commercial sources. I'm interested to see how its done.

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