Yeah, that about sums it up. Sorry for the no-post yesterday… I have about enough stamina to run downstairs and heat up some tea before collapsing back into bed right now. Probably I’d be doing better if I could actually sleep, but the general malaise and sinus-balloons aren’t helping there, either. So, anyway, enough whining.
Yesterday, I did manage to take in the white Lydia and hem the sleeves, but not the bottom as I like to iron in some wash-away stabilizer for that, and I’m not up for that much running-up-and-down of stairs. I also spent some time working on The Coat—finishing the hem and making chain tacks between lining hem and shell hem out of some silver embroidery floss I happened to have handy. I have a small
Chain-tack to keep lining and coat hems from shifting too much.
stash of embroidery floss, mostly dating from high-school, when I enjoyed cross stitch, before I realized that if you do cross-stitch, what you end up with at the end of the day is a piece of cross-stitch.
Man, I’m a pack-rat.
Anyway, the exertion of sitting upright for a whole three hours or so was enough to send me back to bed for the evening too wiped to even write, much less photograph my accomplishments.
Today, by contrast, I lay in bed. I did bestir myself enough to open up my Lady Grey pattern, unfold the tissue, separate the pieces, and mark out the size 2 in a felt marker so I can trace them off more easily later. I napped, or tried to. In a fit of boredom, I took another stab at designing labels, this time using Inkscape (since I have it on my laptop, whereas my elderly copy of
Labels made in Inkscape. Also a cooler font.
Illustrator only runs on the old XP desktop). Inkscape is another vector graphics program, rather like Illustrator’s awkward, ungainly cousin. It has one huge advantage over Illustrator—it’s free—and one smaller one, which is that although its user-interface is fairly clunky, I actually find it more intuitive than Illustrator’s, which has to be the least-intuitive graphics program I’ve ever messed with*.
Anyway, you can see the outcome. The illustration actually printed out quite nicely… I was a little worried about
Label, v. 2.0
that. And here is the label in place in my coat:
So that’s where I’m at.
Oh, Self-stitched September.
Yesterday
Today.
All right. Off to bed.
*I’ve never actually had any formal training in graphic arts. All of my photoshop prowess, which is passable, and my Illustrator and Inkscape and GIMP fu, which are rather less, come from messing around. A lot of messing around. If you have actual training in any of these programs, my hat is off to you and you can undoubtedly make them dance circles around what little I can do.
Tanit-Isis Sews 
I laughed out loud at your comment about cross-stitch. That is so true for me, too. All that time stitching and then up not really being excited with the result. But, the small stash of floss does come in handy from time to time. 🙂 I hope you’re feeling better soon!
Yeah… I enjoyed fhe process, and there are some nice designs… But what the heck do you do with a piece of cross stitch? It’s not really the kind of thing I want to hang on the wall. 😉
I totally laughed at that too, I thought maybe we were separated at birth. (I’m way older than you, and I still have floss from high-school too).
Feel better soon! Lovely chain-tack by the way. I guess that’s one benefit of feeling poorly, catching up on the hand-stitching?
I’m self-taught on Illustrator too – when in doubt, draw a white box with white edges and use it like whiteout! 🙂
you know, I can think of a lot of times when that would have helped a lot! 😉
Thank you for a “aha” moment. Cross stitch, I used to do tons of it and still have all the crap necessary to do it, even tho I haven’t touched it in years. I didn’t realize until reading your post that I have no intention of ever doing it again. Tomorrow it gets a drive to Value Village, and I get more room for sewing stuff. Win win.
LOL! hooray for “cross-stich enlightenment”. Next target—rug hooking! Actually, then at least you’d end up with a rug, which could potentially be useful.
(no offense to actual cross-stitchers or rug hookers out there 😉 )
aw your coat is going to be full of lovely extra attention details 🙂
feel better soon, love the label!
I just found your blog & love your clothes! can you share any of your sources for fabric if you get them online? i especially love your jalie 2908 jeans!! they are awesome!!
Actually, so far I’m an online-fabric virgin ;). My main sources are Fabricland, which I think is a Canadian chain, and my local thrift store. Neither are particularly inspiring (or cheap). Beangirl is totally up on it, though, so you should ask her!
Also, thanks for the compliments!
Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. I hope you’ll be feeling better again really soon.
I love that label! x
I hope you feel better soon, that is the worst. But the coat is still coming along, so you’re doing better than I would be.
(I am an ooooooold Illustrator user– um, I actually used the first version that came out, if you can believe– so I find it very intuitive. But that’s probably because after twenty years, my brain has actually molded to Adobe’s ideals, rather than the other way around. Hmmm… interesting experiement….)
Thanks for the well-wishes, guys. I had a good night’s sleep last night (for the first time in several days… hard to sleep when your face is exploding) and actually feel passably human this morning. I’m still going to take it easy, but I might actually get something accomplished today. 🙂
Oooh, vintage embroidery floss thread chains!
Put a sweater on lady! You’ll catch a cold! Oh wait….
get better soon!
lol! I took the (non-self-stitched) hoodie off for the photo. It has to be at least five degrees (Celsius) warmer than typical indoor temperature for me to wander around in just a tank-top, even when I’m not sick. 😛
Glad you’re feeling a little better…dealing with ratty fall allergies here in Pittsburgh. Really enjoy your posts and enthusiasm! Coat coming along nicely too. We have a great button shop here if you are interested. Now, don’t laugh, I have the cross-stitch archive as well, but best of all, I bought a ton of stuff to do wool rug hooking at a quilt show in April….still in the shopping bag! Geeezzzzzz!
Hee hee! Oops, I promised I wouldn’t laugh. Not laughing at all. Enjoy your rugs!
Hi, hope you’re feeling better soon…
Cross-stitch, yeah used to be in to it too… not for decades though. Sooooo time consuming. But the embroidery threadds have come in handy, once in a blue moon…
Your coat looks amazing. The chains are a good idea!
“…before I realized that if you do cross-stitch, what you end up with at the end of the day is a piece of cross-stitch.”
Lol. So true.
I am impressed with your impeccable thread chain.
Feel better!
Lol! Thanks. I confess to no particular ability in the thread-chain department… my history with crochet is not that different from my history with cross-stitch ;). Though I do think crochet has more innate potential…
I love the labels. The font is great.
I hope you get better soon. Get out into some of our sunshine. I think it’s healing.
LOL i gave up cross stitch too cause i couldn’t figure out what to do with the finished piece! it was all about the challenge then, meh…give it away (or put it in a box with my diplomas!). i LOVE the illustration on the new labels, it’s adorable and a bit fantasy/sci-fi which i adore. they’re brilliant!!
Aww, thanks! I use it a fair bit for profile pics and stuff… just a doodle from a few years back that I happened to actually like. I’m so out of practice at drawing (other than scientific illustration, anyway) since I had kids, I have to cherish the few good ones I do get 🙂