at fred's insistence, if that's even spelled right

i've had a very very long and stressful week. my mother is in the hospital with cancer, i failed my italian class, i lost the FGI scholarship to some (^#$$*#(^*^$%#&$^&$!!!! pleather crap that looked like something i did back when i was 18 (as in like that's what i did for my prom dress as a joke) when i really really needed that money to pay for my senior thesis (which is actually coming along quite well, its the only thing in my life that's going fine right now), and in general have been relatively depressed, mostly due to my own medical issues lingerging from the summer (i might also have cancer). fred pointed out i'm getting fixated on stuff when things get bad. so i'm just going to get really calloused for a bit to focus on thesis and make it through the semester, and then winter break and then i can think about these things again when i am finished with thesis. its going to suck but i have to have some discipline

but i have made some hats as of late. some of the pics are repeats of what i've put up but much better quality now. i'm thinking about making another one of those apple books with the photos.

ok, i'm definitely absorbed by millinery

the end is near.....the end of the semester that is. one month to go! i haven't started sewing any muslins.....i really really really want to go on a ride on the lakefront today but i know that i need to get stuff done. i spent too much time this weekend dickin around.

so i was browsin the columbia website randomly when i woke up this morning and i came upon shopcolumbia which is where i have a few of my hats for sale. i scrolled through the images and found they had a photo of some of the hats i have there. sweet! the middle one is sold, i sold a comission of that one, and i got comissioned for another one as well. most of the millinery work i've been doin is more on the high end boutique level, not so much the columbia store, but i've been gettin together some cycling hats made out of some wool remnants (fred loves the one i made him as a test of the pattern, and i wear mine every time i jump on the bike) to take over there and sell for like $30
so friday i rode up to niles. 30 miles in like 100 minutes. pretty good since i wasn't pushing myself or anything and i was kinda putzin around on the way back. i went up to the north branch trail again, i rode a couple miles in. there were a lot of leaves on the path and i was worried my skinny tires would slip out on them. but it was absolutely breathtaking. like my cameraphone comes no where close to capturing how amazing it was. i want to go on a ride so bad this morning but i have to do sewing. grrrrr.....

well yesterday kaelyn and i drove up to the fold to get some roving for our thesis. omg. i ended up settling on 1.5 lbs of merino and cashmere, and .5lbs of silk and camel. and, because i'm so bad, i got 1 oz of vincuna. its like a little handful of heaven. i'm so mad i've got shit on my drop spindle, i'd spin it right now. i want to make like a lacey berret with it. i can't believe i could buy some. it was only $26 and i can make something little and dainty. awesome. and i bought some Socks that rock silk thread again. i'm going to knit it really loose on the knitting machine (or fred will, he loves that thing) and make it into some dresses to go with these crazy hats i'm going to be making.

well i'm having a photoshoot of my milinery today with crystal and fred, so i'll put those photos up when i get them.

happy friday!

halloween was the last friday of the month, so you know what that means......

Critical Mass!
i haven't gone since may, i've missed it. between getting hit twice, an awful job, and all my medical troubles, i haven't had a chance all summer to go. i had so much fun!

i went with my friend dustin who was st. sebastian. we were both showin some serious skin last night!

i went as joan holloway from mad men. i absolutely adore her character, and i think its freakin awesome that christina hendricks is curvy and has the success that she has had.

also, i'm kinda considering dying my hair this color. i really like it and my hair is starting to go into winter hibernation black mode and i don't feel like looking like a goth this year

so i made the dress out of a wool remnant i had laying around. and i bought a wig at one of the like 5 (i'm dead serious about this) wig shops at the corner of ashland, division, and milwaukee. i styled it into the updo with a can of aquanet and like 30 bobby pins. when we got to a party, i ditched the flats and put on black pumps, but for the pony i had on flats, but they kept falling off when everyone bunched up and i had to walk my bike while i was still in the saddle. i've definitely lost some weight and now all of my shoes fit funny. between critical mass, going to the mca, then the south loop, then back up to lincoln park, then back to wicker park last night, then today walking to lincoln park and back to wicker park and then biking from wicker park to elston and addison (i have no idea what neighborhood that even is), i've gone like 60 miles. i'm going to go pass out and make some more hats tonight.

oooh and i bought a steamer at bed bath and beyond so now i had block hats anytime, not just at school!

hats!

So this is my recent installation work.....er....me and crystal being dicks to fred and covering his room in AA ads

ugh this one took like 30 hours to make!

i've gotten into this thing with waves as of late....my best selling designs have these waves and pleats going on

i love this

this is my favorite photo of my work i've ever seen so far

seriously when i finished this collection, the styling i imagined for it would have a black model. i don't mean that in any offensive way, i just thought that the color scheme would look better on a darker skin tone.

and i'm ecstatic about this one

holy fucking shit batman, its mother fucking midterms

uh.....



where did the semester go? we just ended week 6, out of 15. these marathons of work are exhausting, particularly this week mostly because comcast sucks and won't come to setup my computer and tv in my room till monday. soooooo i didn't make it through to the finals of chicago fashion focus but i really wasn't too concerned about that. i had other stuff to focus on. uh.....well columbia stole the show at Dress Code for chicago fashion week, and i'd like to think it was a preview of what the senior show will be like in the spring. take that art institute!

uh so on my birthday there was a show that some of my stuff was in. i wasn't able to attend since it was my birthday party, but thankfully one of the seniors was gracious enough to take a few of my garments to be shown. i just yanked the photos off of facebook, and the clothes aren't exactly worn how i intended, but i guess its fair to let other people style my stuff.....comes up with some interesting results












well i decided to make my self a fall coat for bike riding. i don't have any pictures of that, but i do have photos of me in the old lady persian lamb jacket i took apart to trim my coat. i ended up taking the sleeves down to tshirt length and taking off the mink collar to make a hat and putting a ruffle for a collar in. see, recycling at work

HAPPY BDAY TO ME!

That's right, i turned 22 and it was fantastic. didn't get too drunk, gave myself a real nice present on friday, and then randomly got free tickets to a show yesterday at the metro. i had a great party, and oh yeah i now have a roommate. the hermitage household is gonna be some sitcom shenanigans as soon as we get all this crap organized.

well my neck and back are killing me right now so i'll be brief but go to here to check out my stuff on display. you can even buy somethin (PLEAZE I NEED MONEYS)! I'll be there this saturday so come stop by and heckle me as i try to wear seafoam. And on sunday i'll find out if i get accepted to the second stage of the chicago fashion foundation's anual scholarship. also hopefully by then i'll have my living arrangements better sorted out so i'm not having to go through a minefield of new and exciting stuff which i am trying not to snoop around in to get to my computer

a series of interesting events; or how i got hit by a car again

yeup, that's right, i got hit by a car. again. i'm really getting sick of it. i'm sick of telling the story since i've told it a million times but basically i'm going to have a decent scar on my left leg. i guess it will balance out the one on my right knee. So RIP Trek Soho S, i barely knew you. i did put over 2000 miles on it in less than 6 months, and for a girl who used to be super girly and frilly 6 months ago, you can certainly see the change. Well so i went and got a hipster doodad, which has actually gotten me some attention. its a 1993 seven21 Miyata, and i switched it from a 10 speed to a fixed gear. its a lot lighter and less clunky than the soho was. oh and i went and got a sweet tattoo after my first accident. i've basically decided my left arm is going to have a full sleeve



ok so i said i was making a collection this summer, and i pretty much did it all in the first week of school since i got really sidetracked by a lot of things. i had this big epiphany about my life about a month or so ago. i was really going down this path of depression and self destruction, not so much with like drugs or anything since i'm not into that, but more so just emotional ruin. i was being a real pain in the you know what to all of my friends. i was basing my self worth over the way people reacted to me and how attracted they were to me and i was just getting more and more angry. it wasn't a good thing. and my work suffered. but basically i realized that what someone once told me who i blew it off at the time, but i can see now that he was right, was that i can't be in a relationship since i'm already in one with my work. i'd be cheating on both parties if i tried to love them both. so i've been really happy as of late. i know that i have a mental issue where i will get depressed but i know what it is and i know i can beat it now. i'm finally happy with myself. like i'm not shitting rainbows or anything but i'm just confident and i think that people see that. i litterally was walking down the street the other day to go "see who i hang with" at neiman marcus and people were stopping me and telling me i was beautiful, and it wasn't like i was super done up or anything. i get handed phone numbers now. its bizarre. i was at the andrew bird concert at millenuim park two weeks ago and seriously like 5 chicks were hitting on me at once. and i'm flattered but i don't let it go to my head because i'm just happy being all grungy and sweaty from bike riding and then i get home and sew.


speaking of sewing, which was what this blog is supposed to be about, my cathardic writing is usually for myspace, i threw together a 5 look collection in about 40 hours of work. thesis can now offically suck my dick. i call it "futuro anarchy". dennis was talking on the first day in thesis about silhouettes in womenswear and when he asked what the silhouette is for this era, i said "its a clusterfuck!" he laughed and said "today's womenswear silhouette is the anarchy of self expression." and i've been kind of thinking that in the next 5-10 years fashion will come back to having a silhouette. i'd like to think it will have a lot to do with the climate crisis and how that is changing our living habits. so my story is that this is the outfit of women in 2013. she lives in a major city and she walks to her job. she's conscious of what she eats and where it comes from and how she needs to stay healthy because she saw what all that processed foods did to her parents' health, so she's slim but not skinny, more toned if anything. i see the color schemes being skewwed in the future as old conventions need to be thrown out, which was where the seafoam color came into play. orriginally the designs were going to be darker grey and navy but when i was at fishmans buying the jersey, those three colors came to me. its a microfiber jersey, and it feels light as air. but that's not always flattering to the figure so all the items except for the body of the leggings are built on top of a power mesh understructure. this means that its slimming, like wearing a body shaper but its part of the dress. its snug but there's still room to move around. and all the white fabric is an organic bamboo voile, which was interesting to work with. i'm definitely going to get good photos taken when i take that photo styling class in the spring. i think that the clothes lend themselves to an interesting photoshoot.

i made it all for chicago fashion week and in about 12 hours i'm going to find out if any of it got accepted. the construction on the inside was a little shoddy since i sewed it so fast. but i still have a 5 look collection put together, so that'll be just fine for when i need something in the next 5 months or so to throw on some models. plus the color scheme is really catching, so i think that might set me apart from some people.

fall, where are you?!

i'm ready for fall. ready for that crisp air, the crunchy leaves (can't wait for wicker park to get even more adorable), the jewel tones, the excess of knitwear. i'm ready to not be sweating my ass off on my bike when i want to ride to the grocery store

so i came across the bastard love child of my two main interests. i'm not sure if i need to run out and buy some of it, be a c*cksucker and rip it off, or run....er hop on my bike in jimmy choo's and ride off into the hills. first of all i'm neither a fan of bianchi or acne jeans (god could you pick a dummer name for your company? i understand its an acronymn but was hemroids or genital warts already taken?) but i'll be curious to see if the fashion or cycling world can come together under such terms. i was toying with the idea of doing a biking collection in the spring for that photo class, but i was going to go a different route, more inspiration coming from tour de france circa 70's.

well i've been busting my concussed ass into gear trying to throw together a whole wack o' shit for this competition on monday. i'm not exactly enthused by what i've done but i guess i'll have to take it. the bonk on the head set me back like 3 weeks on shit and now i'm really suffering from it. photos after the weekend when i'm done with it all.

and omg school starts in like 2 weeks. freakin out!

ooh ooh and i found a new fav store in wicker park. gamma player on division just west of damen is the shit. i haven't come across a store with such amazing designs. i picked up a dress there (yeah shouldn't have blown $100 on a jersey dress) that was just amazing in design. aparantly (and when i told chad about it he was like, oh it was made by people who aren't starving artists) they only make a few of each garment and never remake a run. so my dress is one of like 5 in the whole world. fuckin sweet because its a great dress. so check them out, the store isn't outlandishly pricey, it is expensive but they have stuff like hussien chalayon and crazy designers you've never heard of that are really innovative.

anybody got a job for me?

ta da...... i rode all the way to skokie on tuesday. i found the elusive North Branch Trail, which i had not been able to find for several years.

so i rode to skokie after having been hit by a car saturday night, which probably wasn't the best idea. i collapsed on wednesday, got to go see some more doctors. i got a concussion, which sucks....i think today is the first day i didn't wake up with a splitting headache and an overwhelming feeling of depression. sucks what one smack to the head will do to your brain chemistry. i forgot a lot of things, like i told the same story like 10 times till the point my family wanted to crack me on the head again. it also sucks that the dude who blew the red light and hit me totally drove off without a care. and that some people are being some real C yoU Next TuesdayS about the whole thing. at least i know who my friends are now
so hey look i clean up pretty well. i went to boystown a few weeks ago and put on heels for the first time in months. not that that's a bad thing, i''ve just been biking so much that i haven't really had an opportunity to wear heels

oh and on another note, all the TA's in the fashion department basically got fired for the rest of the summer. like i still have a job come fall, but for 6 weeks i am out of one. no warning, just dumped on me, especially when i was about ready to faint from the concussion. and i'm not going to be able to do this dog walking thing forever so IF ANYONE KNOWS A DECENT JOB, I AM MORE THAN WILLING TO TAKE IT. please, i need to get through senior thesis!

infected by the hipster disease

so here's the jacket i'm working on for the dude in product design. its just the shell so far. its chillin in a dye bath over the weekend at school.


and this was a cop convention that chad and i saw when we were at the bob inn a few days ago. there were like 30 cops. and chad's sideboob. and the heron we saw on our bike ride. the chicago nature museum up by the lincoln park zoo looks like a bond villan's lair.

so i went to village discount outlet today. O M G. check out that spread! i got 5 tshirts, one tank top, a pair of shorts, a pair of shoes, an old lady track jacket, a silk handkerchief, and a pair of ralph lauren jeans that had $2 in the pocket. all of that was only $20. SCORE! and all the stuff i picked up is soooo hipster its scary. living in wicker park has finally gotten to me. and i've accepted it. and those jeans look fucking amazing on me!



so i made my first purse this week for brett's leather working class. its pretty cute. everyone thought i was just putting a new lining in an old purse and i was like, hell no! there's some stuff that didn't work out but i'd have to say for a first attempt, i'm rather pleased. plus its lined in charmuse for secret sexy awesomeness

a little bitter

so apparantly i'm being called a copycat and that i can't design anything despite some people having their heads shoved up you know where so far that they might have discovered a new process of digesting. and i will definitely admit that i'm a bit bitter about it. I'll get over it, but i'm still nursing the wound, especially where it came from. if anything, its making me give the finger to people even more and work harder and harder to prove them wrong. so instead of one 3 outfit collection by the end of summer, i'm going to make two by august 18th. i'd like to see anybody else try to copy me.

ok it doesn't help that i'm still sick over a week after i got a cold and i'm totally pms-y

getting fixed next week

so on completely unrelated, yet equally important to me, news, i'm going fixie next week. that's right, the girl who would spend 100 hours sewing some avant guarde piece, is just as passionate about cycling as she is about the art of fashion design. so having been riding my road bike since march, and usually clocking 130-150 miles a week, i'm switching to fixed gear at the end of next week. I have spent much time scouring the internet, finding favorites hipsternascar.com and trackosaurusrex.com, getting excited to make the change. i'm going to get new velocity wheels, probably in seafoam. i now want to spend the next 6 months trying to train to compete in the Tour da Chicago. i sat on youtube the past few days watching the most insane videos of this year's stairmaster stage and nearly shit my pants. so trackstands, wheelies, and skids (all in dresses!) here i come!