2011.02.28.tad: dress with bows

i drew this dress in illustrator based on the following photo:

here is a a summary of all my tads this month:

tad has been great! looking forward to seeing everyone next year!

2011.02.27.tad: striped hoodie

i need a hoodie without zippers, so i decided to make one:

i might add a kangaroo pocket and a skirt and maybe shape it a little more, but i think it will work for what i need... i used a piece of scrap fabric that i've had lying around that is a little scratchy and not that cozy, so it's more of a prototype for possible future clothing that i might make...

2011.02.26.tad: maze and circle

today was my first day in a sample making and design sewing class that i'm taking. we learned how to use industrial sewing machines and worked on a maze and circle exercise:

the lines are sewn concentrically 1/4" apart. i think of it like the equivalent of doing scales on the piano, but for sewing. i have used an industrial machine before and have done the same exercises before, but still found the circle to be very challenging. it starts out ok, but when you get to the inside, any flaws in your sewing become much more apparent.

i'm excited about the class. throughout the semester, we will learn a variety of sewing techniques including seams and finishes, curves, bias, hems, hand finishing, plackets, pockets, buttonholes, collars and necklines, and zippers and assemble a notebook with examples of everything we have sewn.

2011.02.25.tad: illustrator self-portrait

following the themes of making avatars and learning illustrator, i drew a self-portrait illustrator based on a photograph:

i traced over the photograph and made adjustments where i thought it made sense to.

2011.02.24.tad: basic dress, revisited

today, for my illustrator class, i expanded on the basic dress illustration that i made the other day and created variations and then compiled everything into a linesheet:

2011.02.23.tad: cthulhu comp, wip

i worked on a first pass of a second product photo for my photoshop product photography assignment:



i crocheted this cthulhu doll a couple of years ago. it was from a book called creepy cute crochet: zombies, ninjas, robots, and more!.

i also worked on my pigopus comp some more:



i refined and smoothed the edges of my mask some more, hand painting and blurring where appropriate. i also adjusted my shadows and reflections.

2011.02.22.tad: basic dress tracing

tracing of a basic dress pattern in my illustrator class:

we are just learning elementary techniques right now, as well as different, more efficient ways of working. we will take the same dress and apply different variations (sleeveless, longer, etc.) and then create a linesheet on thursday.

2011.02.21.tad: iq regolit

tonight, i assembled a lamp that my friend gave me as a gift and attached it to an arc lamp base from ikea:

the light is from http://www.iqlight.com/ and is composed from 30 plastic pieces. i had made different versions of the lamp before and displayed them, but this is the first time i attached it to a lamp base. it's been on my todo list for a long time...

2011.02.20.tad: striped tee

today i made a striped tee to go with my striped skirt:

i based it on a basic tee that i have and like. it turned out a little more fitted than i planned because my material was less stretchy than the original. i did try to account for it by making it a little bigger, but not enough, i guess. i need to smooth out the neckline, cut down the loose threads, and patch a few spots where the serger didn't sew all the way through, but i'll do that some other time...

2011.02.19.tad: pigopus comp, wip

the first project in my photoshop class involves creating product ads from hi-res photographs of objects. i took a photo of the pigopus sculpey that i made last year and masked it out, then generated a background with a ground, cast shadows, and reflections. this is just a work in progress, there is a lot more work i should do, like making the back leg out of focus, fixing some issues with the mask, creating a more compelling composition and layout, and improving the shadows and reflections. i also painted my pigopus in photoshop because i never had a chance to do that in real life:

2011.02.18.tad: striped skirt

today i made another skirt:

it's similar to the one i made the other day but with some changes (based on my experience wearing the other one). this one isn't reversible and has a longer second layer. i also used a serger this time instead of a sewing machine. it has exposed side seams and a fold over belt that is more narrow than the other one i made (it was a bit too loose last time). i usually wear the skirts over tights and under hoodies/tunics, so the waist doesn't really matter that much anyway.

2011.02.17.tad: basic tee, revisited

today, in my illustrator class, we expanded on the basic tee that we made before and created a document containing the garment in 4 colorways, as well as corresponding fabric swatches and fashion related information text:

tomorrow, i don't have any classes, so i'll actually try to make something on my own, and not just take the lazy way out and post my class assignments...

2011.02.16.tad: car mask

today i masked a car in photoshop and composited it onto a background that i generated for a class that i'm taking:

2011.02.15.tad: basic tee tracing

an exercise from my illustrator class:

we learned various techniques to work efficiently and precisely and traced a basic tee shirt design that was provided.

2011.02.14.tad: inversion valentine

today i designed a valentine's day card that is an inversion---it looks the same right side up and upside down:



it's something that i used to do with my own name and my friends' names (on their own, not combined) when i was younger. i got the idea of combining my hubby's name and mine into a single inversion for valentine's day.

2011.02.13.tad: reversible skirt

i was feeling very lazy and uninspired today, but saw a post by starfive and was inspired to make a skirt too. i have tons of fabric lying around waiting to be used, so this was a good start.
unfortunately, some of the fabrics are only scraps and not big enough to make a skirt, so i had a hard time finding 2 fabrics that i liked together. i'll have to come up with other uses for the scraps, maybe during tad or beyond. here is my skirt:



i cut the shape from a dress that i have and like---basically, 2 pieces with a rounded bottom---but the fabric on that one is thicker, so this one hangs a bit differently. i liked the trapezoidal cut of the one that starfive did and might give that a try later this month.

2011.02.12.tad: neoclassical dress

today, i illustrated another dress:



this was my inspiration. i drew it by hand, photographed it, and then colored it in photoshop.

2011.02.11.tad: hemmed jeans

today, i hand-sewed some jeans that i had previously hemmed using this method:
http://home.comcast.net/~kozykitty/blog/originalhem.pdf

as the tutorial recommends, you can cut off the excess fabric, but i usually leave it on with the idea that i can change the hem if i need to. i do this because it takes me a while to figure out what kind of shoes i'm usually going to wear with the jeans, and sometimes, i change my mind. normally, the excess fabric isn't a problem. however, these particular jeans are slim/skinny throughout the leg but flared at the ankle, so whenever i walked, the excess fabric would flip out---not ideal---so i hand-sewed the fabric to the body of the jeans. i think they should work much better now.

actually, the ankle doesn't look that flared in the photo, but when worn, it is much more so.

2011.02.10.tad: happy rabbit chinese new year! revisited

i have been telling myself for years that i should learn illustrator. i used it before, but it was forever ago. i decided to sign up for a class on illustrator concentrating specifically in fashion design. it started this week. so far, so good, i'm liking it a lot. today was the first day we worked in illustrator. we learned how to trace images and learned how to use the pen tool. i decided to redo my day 03 tad that i had done in photoshop because i wasn't happy with the line quality. i like it much better in illustrator:

also, here is the class exercise that we worked on today:

our intructor hand drew it and gave it to us to practice with. i traced and colored it in illustrator. the colors i chose were a little different than what was exported. i'll look into fixing that later...

2011.02.09.tad: birthday card

today, my hubby hiked to top of a peak and called me when he got there. i made this card is to commemorate his achievement and celebrate his birthday too.

2011.02.08.tad: pet rock

i have to admit i feel a bit lame posting this for today, but i am still sick and had a long day on top of that. i didn't really want to make anything today but decided to push through it. i decided that i wanted to make a pet rock using a piece of sea glass, but when i looked at my collection, none of them seemed suitable. i also didn't have any googly eyes, not that it's essential. in the end, i decided to make one out of sculpey:

i wanted it to have a marbled surface, which it sort of has, but i didn't work at it or try to control it that much. there is a piece of aluminum foil inside to help fill it out, and i tried to make the details neater than my football sculpey. i haven't baked it yet but will. i will probably glaze it after baking to give it a shinier, marble-like quality.

2011.02.07.tad: mass effect 2 me, revisited

i have been sick for a couple of days and had no energy to do anything today. i sat in bed playing word games for most of the day while procrastinating in making my tad.

i am always wanting to learn new photoshop tricks and techniques. i decided to redo my avatar from day 01 by taking it into pshop and redoing proportions and other stuff. the result is a combination of resizing, scaling, and distorting the original avatar, as well as hand painting and cloning on top of it to smooth things out. i also copied my eyelids and a snippet of my hair from my original photo and comped those on top too. i know it still doesn't really look like me, but i think it's an improvement from before. i'm planning to use it as an avatar for some profiles.

2011.02.06.tad: sculpey superbowl

today, i revisited something i made during my first tad, but in sculpey instead of plush form:

it's about a 1.5"x0.75" diameter at its widest point.

cross-posted here.

2011.02.05.tad: corona family

i have a collection of corona bottles that i carried around with me for too long because i wanted to photograph them before i recycled them. here they are:

nothing remarkable, i know, i just liked the idea that they are the same thing but in different sizes. here are some more:

2011.02.04.tad: draw this dress

a friend of mine showed me this blog: http://drawthisdress.tumblr.com/

i thought it was really cool and thought i'd try to illustrate a dress i saw at a museum exhibition of costume history:

my inspiration here.

cross-posted here

2011.02.03.tad: happy rabbit chinese new year!

my interpretation of the chinese character for 'rabbit' : 兔子 (tùzi)

2011.02.02.tad: dress alteration

today i finished a project that i started a while ago. i had bought a dress secondhand and didn't realize until later that it was actually a maternity dress. there was an inverted pleat in the skirt along the front that i took out and sewed back together after cutting excess fabric from the sides. i put it all back together, but the back of the dress didn't lay flat anymore, so my friend helped me pin darts into it to fix the problem.

to complete the project, i sewed the pinned darts into the skirt portion and also adjusted the torso darts to account for the narrower waist. i didn't have the right thread color, and my sewing machine tension seemed like it was a little off (i guess i'll have to deal with that at some point) so the new threads were too visible---i colored them with a sharpie to minimize them. here is the result with before and after pictures:

i need to iron it better before wearing but am overall happy with the adjustments. i have a closetful of clothing that needs similar alterations, so i might be posting more of these this month...

cross-posted here

2011.02.01.tad: mass effect 2 me

i am excited to be participating in thing.a.day for the 4th year in a row. this is my first post:

i wasn't feeling so inspired today and decided to start out lazily. i have an obsession with making avatars. i like to try to make them look as much like me as possible, although they don't usually end up looking anything like me. the result today was no different, but it was still fun to try. meet ciggy shepard:

* my friend pointed out (and he is totally right) that i should include a comparison image, so here it is:

other views: front, left, right, up, down

other avatars i've made before: fallout3 (from tad2009), mii, wow chars: minimi (gnome) and nikita (blood elf)

i promise to try harder tomorrow...

original post here.