Sunday, July 31, 2005

The Airplanes

Okay, the airplanes were both pretty bad. I don't know a thing about graphic design and even I would know that Tommy would like some version of his flag logo and his name superimposed on the plane. The bigger the better. But honestly, how many people would know how to execute this? This is a job for professionals.

My favorite part of the show was when Tommy saw his caricature. (Hey Tommy, where's your sense of humor? It's a CARICATURE - not a portrait!)

I'd love a t-shirt with that image of Tommy on the front and the "swastika" logo on the back and a caption reading "Do you really think this looks like me?"

"YES!" Tommy it does. Sorry.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

New Night For The Cut

The Cut moves to Friday next week. Oh why do I keep watching this? How much longer until Project Runway?

Monday, July 25, 2005

What Do you Think?



I was at Starbucks this morning and saw an Etta James cd...

Necktie Skirt #6


Introducing...the swishy skirt! This necktie skirt has been made with gutted ties. The basting stitches are pulled out and the interlining pieces are removed. It's much cooler and lighter weight than a regular necktie skirt but it's a LOT more work. I only made one.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Necktie Skirt #5


This is my daughter, Kaitlin in an orange necktie skirt. I went through about 5000 ties to find enough ties to make ONE orange skirt. It turned out great though. This is one of my all-time favorites!

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Necktie Skirt #2 - Andrew Olsen

This is Andrew Olsen. Andrew came over last December to make a necktie skirt for his then-sweetheart, Sydney. I wrote about it
here. Great job, Andrew!

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

The Necktie Skirt Wins The Day!


Hooray for necktie skirts! I really enjoyed tonight's episode of The Cut! I'm going to post necktie skirt photos every day for the next week with a little story about each.

Here is number one: This is my friend, Andrea Park, who is a fashion design student at Cornell. This is her very first necktie skirt. She was a very careful and patient student. I met Andrea at Chipotle where she worked last summer. I was paying for my meal and she noticed my bag.... Things took off from there!

A Really Bad Day...

Without much Project Runway news my blog is a bore - so I'm repeating a post from RickRackRuby. It was the day of the Project Runway marathon on Bravo....

I had big plans to stay home all day on Wednesday sewing and watching the Project Runway Marathon.... HA! First I had to drive William (my second grader) to the bus stop. Dan (the 11th grader) usually comes too but he wan't ready so I had to turn around and come back home to fetch him after Will's bus picked him up. I picked up Dan and took him to his friend's house (Kelly who usually drives him to school.) But Kelly had overslept and was running late so I had to drive Dan all the way to school. On the way there he said he hadn't had breakfast and asked if we could stop somewhere. We had time so I agreed. (He should have had breakfast while I was waiting at Will's bus stop. Are you following this?) By the time we got to Dan's school it was late and I got caught in the dreaded "drop-off snafu." Anyone who drives their kids to school knows what I mean. I returned home to find James about ready to leave. This is the easy one - he is in 7th grade and WALKS to his bus stop. BUT he had a Science Fair Project on one of those big boards and asked if I would drive him. I drove him to school too and When I finally arrived home it was 8:45. I took a shower and sat down to sew.

After about 15 minutes - the POWER went out! Arghhhh... I decided to make the best of it and moved into the kitchen where I have a skylight and could see very well. I windexed off the counter and started to cut out a new project. The phone rang and it was Dan asking me to pick him up - he "Didn't feel well..." I explained that there was no power and I didn't think I could get the garage door open but that I would try.

I went out to the garage, disengaged the electric door opener and tried to lift the door manually. I got it up, but it wouldn't stay. I tried several things. I stood on a chair, I got a ladder, but it just wouldn't stay up. I tried to call Dan back but he didn't answer his cell phone. I returned to the task. Now here is a word of advice: If you have to lift a large and heavy garage door by yourself be certain you are lifting from the absolute CENTER of the door.

I was off to one side and I heard a horrid screeching sound. The door was now stuck. I hopped down from the ladder and saw that the door was crooked, bent and hopelessly stuck. Some of the wheels were off the track. There was no way I was getting out of there. I was officially imprisoned.

I called my husband Ken and asked if he thought he could fix this. He is an engineer and really good at these things usually but he explained how dangerous garage doors were and how the tension in the spring held tons of force etc. etc. and this was a job for a professional. So I called the first garage door repair place in the yellow pages and they said they could be there between 11:00 and 2:00. I was certain that meant 2:00. Also, there was a miniumum charge of $49.00 for the service call... $199.00 to rewind a cable... $149.00 to reset the spring. If the bent panel had to be replaced that would be more. $$$$ etc. etc. So I feared the worst.

Meanwhile the power came back on. Dan called and said he was returning to class. He now felt "better..." Arghhhh.... I'm pretty sure he just went to the clinic to poop.

Anyway, I sat down to sew again and Ken called to say that he had a call from the bank to let us know that our checking account was overdrawn and we had until 4:00 their time to make a deposit. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a big deal. I can wire funds from my account here in Scottsdale to this account in Florida. But I was still waiting for the garage door guy.

BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS - The Project Runway Marathon started at 12:00 and I had six new blank video cassettes! I set the first one to record the first two episodes. The garage door guy arrived and fixed everything for $314.00.

I headed to the bank and transferred funds by 12:30 my time. That's 2:30 their time - plenty of room before my 2:00 deadline. Things were improving....

But of course there was more to come.

My oldest son Matthew has been planning a trip to Florida to visit my mom for Spring Break. He has had airline tickets (he and his sweetheart Kelly are traveling together) since January. Well he called to ask if he could leave Kelly's dog here with me.

Please understand that we have never in 25 years of marriage had a dog. My husband absolutely forbids it. He won't even change the dirty diaper of his own child. He does not want to clean up after a dog. Matthew knows this. He had two months to figure out what to do with the dog. But he irresponsibly waited until the last minute. This way he can blame me. I can feel guilty. I'm going to be in Los Angeles with Kaitlin over Spring Break and I won't even be here to take care of the dog. Whatever.

At about 4:00 I called the bank to make sure the money had arrived...but I still had a negative balance. The bank was closed. I left a message. At least I had four episodes of Project Runway on tape. Not everything was bad.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Project Jay!

WOW! Big News! Bravo is working on a documentary called Project Jay. It's going to follow Jay McCarroll as he enters the fashion industry with his new line. I can't wait!

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

A Great Episode!

Wow! I loved this challenge! What a great show - I take back every complaint I had last week. I loved watching the reconstructions. The suspense was killing me - the drama of the underdog team with only 4 members against 5! Jessica getting sick - Felix deserting his team and then acting like a jerk at Sundance... What will happen? How would it end? Which team had better sales? Jeff continues to survive, despite his abrasive, obnoxious personality. What a great show.

Oh, and Shauna is growing on me...despite the minivan comment. She is pretty shrewd. I love the way she chose Jeff as a "sacrificial lamb." He has nothing to contribute - she only chose him in case her team lost - he would be the obvious one to leave!

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Let's Face It...

The Cut just isn't a very good show :( It's not getting any better either. This episode was really really dumb. I can't believe I watched the whole thing. First of all does anyone really believe that the Tourist-y Performance in New Mexico had anything to do with actual Native American Culture? Did you see the colors in those outfits? Neon green? Give me a break!

And why was Jeff stamping and whining outside of the building instead of going in and helping Walter sew the jacket? What a jerk.

And isn't Tommy Hilfiger just so arbitrary when he puts the contestants in the pit? The best strategy is just to say nothing. Are we supposed to believe that Tommy doesn't watch any of the footage of the show, but merely shows up at the "Style Forum" to view the results?

Any news on Project Runway? Anyone know anyone who auditioned for the show? Anyone know anything about the new season? Thanks!

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Big News!

It looks like The Cut is on Wednesday nights from now on. Don't forget!

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Finally...Dresses!


Well it sure was nice to see some actual fashion design in episode four. Although, most of what I saw could not be called fashion. The worst I think was the green feathered number by Jeff and Julie...

I was really shocked by Tommy's behavior. He admitted that he was not using Princess's design or even her pattern pieces. She is a professional pattern-maker! Imagine if he was working for Mr. Hilfiger and HE gave Tommy a design to sew and then Tommy just decided to change it around and make it how he wanted instead of sticking with the original design. Bye Bye Tommy!