Hand made
I'm almost done with knitting a shrug for myself at Burning Man. Graham looked at it last night and commented that with that, my new coat-vest, my knitted wig, and the tutu I made for Halloween last year, I have an outfit that was entirely handmade.
I'm pretty proud of myself. The coat is big and pink and furry on one side and silver lame on the other. I hot glued the fur part together, and then I reinforced that with hand stitching. I machine sewed the lame lining, and then I hot glued the lining to the coat, again, stitching by hand to reinforce. It ended up being fully reversable, and it will be very visable on the playa no matter which side is showing. I do need to find some silver frogs so I can close it if I need to, but otherwise, it's pretty much done.
The shrug was something I came up with because the coat has no sleeves. It's metalic silver yarn that I bought last year for someone's christmas present, but I decided to use another yarn instead. I just knitted in the round for 22 inches, then reverted back to regular knitting for about 18, and now I'm knitting in the round for another 22. Because of the yarn, the shrug sort of looks like chain mail. It will look really cool under the coat, but I could just wear it with other outfits too.
The skirt looks like this (actually, I'm holding the fabric that became my coat in this picture too). I ripped up different fabrics into strips and sewed them on haphazardly onto a piece of elastic, so they fall all around me. The color scheme sort of goes with the pink in the coat, but maybe not the silver as much. I think I can work with that though, especially if I make a top in silver for the ensemble.
The wig hat is blue and cute, and I can't wait to wear it on the playa.
Right now, 24 days before I'm supposed to be out there, the temperatures at night are getting down into the 50s. Who knows what will happen between now and then in terms of weather. Some years, it gets down to the 40s. Some years, it's barely in the 60s. Last year was pretty mild, and I didn't really need warm clothing, but I'm not about to go unprepared for freezingness. I've heard about 2004's sub-arctic temperatures. I've heard about 1999 and never getting warm.
I'm pretty proud of myself. The coat is big and pink and furry on one side and silver lame on the other. I hot glued the fur part together, and then I reinforced that with hand stitching. I machine sewed the lame lining, and then I hot glued the lining to the coat, again, stitching by hand to reinforce. It ended up being fully reversable, and it will be very visable on the playa no matter which side is showing. I do need to find some silver frogs so I can close it if I need to, but otherwise, it's pretty much done.
The shrug was something I came up with because the coat has no sleeves. It's metalic silver yarn that I bought last year for someone's christmas present, but I decided to use another yarn instead. I just knitted in the round for 22 inches, then reverted back to regular knitting for about 18, and now I'm knitting in the round for another 22. Because of the yarn, the shrug sort of looks like chain mail. It will look really cool under the coat, but I could just wear it with other outfits too.
The skirt looks like this (actually, I'm holding the fabric that became my coat in this picture too). I ripped up different fabrics into strips and sewed them on haphazardly onto a piece of elastic, so they fall all around me. The color scheme sort of goes with the pink in the coat, but maybe not the silver as much. I think I can work with that though, especially if I make a top in silver for the ensemble.
The wig hat is blue and cute, and I can't wait to wear it on the playa.
Right now, 24 days before I'm supposed to be out there, the temperatures at night are getting down into the 50s. Who knows what will happen between now and then in terms of weather. Some years, it gets down to the 40s. Some years, it's barely in the 60s. Last year was pretty mild, and I didn't really need warm clothing, but I'm not about to go unprepared for freezingness. I've heard about 2004's sub-arctic temperatures. I've heard about 1999 and never getting warm.