Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Plugging Away


I am still sewing that garment.

Vast amounts of hand-basting. Vast, I tell you.

My current garment progress rate is approximately one seam every three days + one dart every month. Let's play Count The Darts in the picture below! All together now: one waist dart + one french dart + one armscye dart = THREE! 

Per side! SIX for the front alone! (My patience dried up four darts ago.)

And my frog button progress rate is approximately 2" every 2 weeks.

So maybe "progress" is kind of an exaggeration.
Which is not good news, given that Chinese New Year is in ten days. 

But I'm not panicking. 
The way I figure it, I adopt this exact leisurely sewing speed (often even slower) every Halloween, right? 
And the children still miraculously have costumes to wear, right?
(Sometimes even in time for Halloween itself.)

And I can always fall back on Plan B, which is to conveniently pretend I'm not really Asian and eat lutefisk or something.  

But I would like my needle back, because that's the only hand-stitching needle I have in the house that isn't bent, meant for upholstery, cauterized at the tip (sometimes I use needles to remove wood slivers from feet) or plastic, that came with some kid's yarn art kit. 

And I can't have it back if it's trapped in mid-frog, can I?


So I guess I might as well finish the garment. 

Sigh.


11 comments:

  1. Yes, you MUST finish it! It's so beautiful! But I hear ya on all the basting, etc. Not that I would baste that much myself... I don't even attempt such a project! My hat's off to you! You're gonna make it... keep going... it's almost Halloween! ;)

    P.S. I shouldn't tell you this, but you COULD buy another needle. I didn't say that.

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    1. Yes, GG, I could. But that would mean leaving the house. And this weather is not pro-leaving-the-house.

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    2. I sure won't argue with that! I'm hibernating, too! (And sewing my bag... not done yet.)

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  2. I think I'm getting you needles for your birthday, then! Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

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  3. I'm excited to see the finished product!

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  4. "conveniently pretend I'm not really Asian" HAHA. Your frogs look beautiful.

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  5. I am waiting for the frog button tutorial, myself!
    I love your feet-of-clay realism and humor mixed with insanely exquisite talent.

    Happy New Year
    Clare

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  6. This is so beautiful. Right after Chinese New Year 2013, I told myself that I must at least make a top with a cheongsam collar, but 8 days to CNY 2014, nothing has been done. I kept procrastinating as I do not know how to draft the collar. If you have a tutorial on the collar, I forsee myself wearing one next year in 2015 :)

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  7. Hit publish too soon. I want to say, Happy New Year!!! It is so neat to be in California where there are a bunch of people who actually celebrate Chinese New Year properly. Johnny's kindergarten class even had a dragon parade - it was incredible, and all the more because the older kids were so excited to watch the parade!

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