Sky; Seven-Up

Zonnah and I have banded together to help each other through the winter blues, helped in part by a suggestion by Sigrid. I'm emailing her my part of the deal since I don't think I'm going to be able to get myself together enough for regular photography, but here's what I noticed on my first day of noticing the outdoors:

today as i was walking to the bus stop, i noticed how quietly elegant the bare trees are against the brick buildings and bright blue sky. it may be cold as heck and windy to boot, but the saturation of a winter sky is really hard to beat. i hope i remember that when i no longer live in boston.

And, coincidentally enough, when I got home at night and opened my inbox, I saw my friend had emailed me this photo he took while running along the Charles River:


So, Zonnah, even though I myself wasn't able to capture my winter blue sky through the viewfinder, I hope you enjoy the view from Boston!

More blues. I've finished yet another skirt. Skirt #18 // Refashion #14: Seven-Up.

Started waaaaaaaaaay back in the day. Technically this is upcycled fabric instead of a true refashion, a velvety corduroy something or other I picked up at SCRAP the summer before grad school. I made the e. twin an a-line winter skirt last winter [making a friend a skirt without her measurements is just slightly terrifying, although I happen to know that we're both about the same size. About.] with this fabric, and had just enough to create an asymmetrical button-up fitted skirt, with seven fabric-covered buttons that would leave enough of a slit to be fun without being skanky.

Of coures, I forgot to do the "sit test" in the skirt, and so when I sit down it rides up and then there is minor skankiness. Have not quite figured out what to do about that yet, other than to limit its wear to days where I know I'll be sitting in a chair that I can roll under the desk in front fo me, and then I wear it with relish and head for the very back row of the classroom.

This is another self-drafted pattern. I included a self-drafted yoke and lined it, plus a hook at top to help keep everything closed. The finishing is not terribly pretty, but I can live with that. Selective pickiness about detailing, right?

The blue fabric I used to cover the buttons and for the yoke are all from the stash, mostly vintage scraps from my aunt, though the polka dot is from Joann's a couple years ago. When I was working in San Francisco I saw a girl with funky brown boots that had small blue fabric-covered buttons up each side that carried a similar mismatched vintage vibe, and that image has stuck with me ever since. Now if I could only find those boots.