#MeMadeMay Week 3, Mending Mishap

Not all my mending goes smoothly. I tried a quick fix on another tunic with a too-wide neck and here's what happened:

Weird poufs in the middle of my shoulder seams.

This is one of my rare tunics where I turned back and sewed the edges on the neckline.

I'm not claiming it's an excellent sewing job. It's adequate. 

Fixing this one will require ripping out machine stitching at the neckline and resewing the shoulder seams.
That won't be happening soon, so I will endure it falling off my shoulders for now.

Old in-phone photo collage from last September.

This photo is probably the one that helped me decide to add sleeves:

With Kelly at my art exhibition, #myshittycommute April 2016

WAIT A MINUTE! I SAW (and chased) THAT SAME TRUCK YESTERDAY!

#dailytrucks with One Orange Door
left: circa 2016 .  right: 5.23.18
#dailytruck is an Instagram series that I can't seem to stop and has resulted in two art shows so far.

And now you know how easily I'm distracted and why the I have Mending Mountain.

Linking up with Patti's Visible Monday

#MeMadeMay Week 2: Tunic Rehabs

These items are NOT from Repair/Repurpose Mountain.
Instead, it was adding a tiny bit of hand sewing that made me love them all over again.

First, the green stripe rayon tunic.
It kept sliding off my shoulders and driving me batty.
The problem? Neck hole too wide!
A simple 2" in at the shoulder on both sides and my sanity was restored.

"This tunic matches my eyes. Yes, I'll pose with it."

Next, the Japanese kimono textile:

I'm "backstage" at the Palm Desert Civic Center Amphitheater.
Severo had a gig with The Pettybreakers. It was 106ºF.
I found this a good print for disguising spilled guacamole.
Write up on the Glutton blog soon.

And last, the BOOM! tunic, which I tolerated at work in order to be extra festive for the Otis Senior Exhibition after work.

The Chico's ombre dot scarf, acquired last year, pairs perfectly with the tunic.

At Otis. Couldn't figure out the student who created this mirror piece.

Linking up with Patti's Visible Monday

Catherines #iwillwearwhatilike

Oh yeah, DOTS!

A Shoe Is Born #otisshoeworkshop

I MADE MY OWN SHOES!!!!!!! (In case you hadn't heard).

The right shoe is still on the last. The left one is more or less finished. 

I took an amazing week-long shoemaking workshop with Chris Francis at Otis, through the auspices of the Continuing Ed department. [Thank you CE, for underwriting my participation].
Seven of us worked 9-5, Mon-Fri, and 8-11 Sat and all made at least one shoe.
I'll post more about some of the amazing women that participated in subsequent posts --
this one is all about the process!

I'll show you some highlights -- get comfortable, kick your feet up, shoemaking has a lot of steps (harhar).
[I'll keep the images small, for easier scrolling. You can click on an image to see it bigger].

Day One: measuring

the last is first

foot tracing and measuring

comparing the tracing to the last, marking areas to extend

Day 2: Midsole

creating midsoles from scratch
leather is sandwiched between layers of a paper product called redboard

phase 1 of midsole nailed to last

adding steel shanks

adding more redboard to bottom of midsole

 Day Three: uppers - designing, patterns, painting

last covered with masking tape, design worked out

masking tape carefully peeled off last

truing up paper pattern

cutting the uppers from raw vegetan cowhide

folding the topline

stitched dart shapes back of heel

paint it RED!

adding leopard pattern

cutting pigskin liner

Day Four: sewing upper, lasting

attaching upper to liner at topline

covering the edges of midsole with vintage Thai silk

ready to begin lasting

first nails

oops, heel dart not in center. oh well.

prep for gluing in toe box

the pair is lasted

Day Five: heels, soles

prep for gluing upper to midsole and adding cork

next the nails will be replaced with tacks, which stay in the shoe

bottom is smoothed with sander and dremmel

we used plastic heels

plastic covered with pigskin, then dyed black

heel glued, it stands!

[Chris didn't want us sharing his method of making the soles.]

here, I'm waiting for glue to dry to stick the sole to the heel

I wrote a secret message inside the right sole

Day Six: delasting, insole, done

lining trimmed from topline
ready to delast!

tada!

after sinking screws into the heel and nailing in tap, the insole pattern is refined
I didn't catch what kind of leather we cut the insole from
I painted mine purple

it's a shoe!

Did you have any idea that all this went into the making of a shoe?

Linking up with
Patti's Visible Monday
Shelbee's On the Edge of the Week
Catherine's #SaturdayShareLinkup
Rena's Fine-Whatever
Cherie's Shoe and Tell