Henry 2.0

I can't believe I never blogged about Hank! I just found these pictures from January and just realized I never posted them. So, meet Hank.



Hank is a sideboard, a console, an entry table, what Apartment Therapy likes to call a "landing strip." There are too many names to describe this piece of furniture, so we just call it Hank.

As in, "Jessica, where are the scissors?"

"The scissors are in Hank, Geoff."

Before there was Hank, there was Henry.



Henry was a hideous, stained, beat up dresser we used to keep by the door. It needed replacement. I found a small sideboard at an antique shop in Hollywood for forty-five dollars. It was the wrong color. I have become obsessed with making everything in the living room the same red-gold chestnut color, and this color is not in fashion right now. So I began my first refinishing project ever.



You can tell this is January, and not right now, because look at how skinny and flexible I am. Stripping is hard work, but it was worth it.



The color it came in was surprisingly similar to the color of Henry the dresser, which is a terrible gray-beige. Why was this color ever popular?

I stained it in a 50/50 mix of Minwax "Red Chestnut" and "Gunstock" (what is Gunstock? I do not know). Stripping it was somewhat difficult, but getting the stain perfect took several tries and made me a bit dizzy and I will probably never do it again. Also in the process I think I also messed up the concrete on our patio and relinquished our deposit. Eh, the cats were going to destroy the rug anyway... right?

The color did come out perfectly. I love the wood grain and the hardware.



Also, I have a question.



Since I'd never done this before, I forgot to deal with the inside, which is kind of a mess. I'm not doing any more staining! What should I do? Should I paint a picture in there? Decoupage something g33ky? What do you think?

Failure and Fleurchon

I'm going to a wedding today in Wellesley, a high school friend of my husband's. I had this idea that I would make a dress for this wedding. My goodness. It was going to be navy blue dupioni with a gold lining and a patterned waistband, in a crossover bodice style. And I spent many, many hours more than I intended, and I did indeed finish it, and it is beautiful.... for a person two sizes bigger than myself.

Damn you McCalls!

I'm just too upset to try to fix it (which will be possible). It's fully lined, so I need to completely rip out the zipper and cut out fabric of fabric and re-insert it. I'm never making anything lined, or from a pattern, or complicated in any way, again.



Okay, I (probably) don't mean that. But looking at how pretty and properly made this dress is just pisses me off! It makes me want to gain two dress sizes just so it fits. Okay, again... not really. But still.

In defeat, I bought a dress at Ross. It's very cute, and was $13. Remind me again why I was making a dress in the first place? It's a cute black & white floral and is only marked down because the buttons were missing. I made some fabric covered buttons out of the Six fabric, that is, red ponte knit, and a maching headband with a yoyo (paired with a covered button). So I didn't manage to make a dress for this wedding, but I did make a fleurchon.

Flies are Hard

My sister-in-law warned me: flies are hard. It was extra hard because the line in the Burda 7841 detailing how to attach the underside zipper made no sense. Like really, it was in the English column, but it wasn't the English that I speak.

These are for a Gaius Baltar cosplay, in case you're just tuning in.

Apart from the puckering around the fly, which is not too obvious when attached to a person, the pattern was great. The fit is nice and slim, the pieces fit together in a simple and obvious way, and the pockets are nice and roomy. I skipped the back pockets because they didn't seem necessary for this suit, and they looked a bit complicated.

I picked this pattern because it was literally the only pattern for a simple pair of men's pants in all of Joann Fabrics, but I've heard good things about Kwik Sew 3267 if your store has that brand in stock and you want some better fly instructions than Burda has to offer.

The fabric is from Fabric.com's sale section and was only $2 a yard. It's a stretchy suiting.



Geoff was unavailable to model these pants, so they are being modeled by the curtain rod over my bedroom door. Yes, my bedroom has curtains. There is a reason, and it has to do with cats. It gives my bedroom a Turkish harem feel, I think.

Not a Three Hour Shirt

Chugging along on the cosplay. This is Baltar's shirt, inspired by this picture. I used McCall's 4079, a so-called "three hour shirt." Not! I admit this is the first time I've used an official, commercial, tissue paper pattern, but this wasn't even close to three hours.

Using a pattern was very helpful. I don't think I could have done the collar without it (and I barely managed with it). But the fit on this was a bit silly. The collar fit perfectly, but I had to cut several inches off the side. What kind of weirdly proportioned, tiny necked, huge chested person is this designed for...? I guess that's the unisex aspect.



A note on buttons: I am a crazy person! When Geoff was trying on the shirt, he said, "It's a little hard to button what with the holes being sideways." And I realized that I have always made button holes the wrong way. I don't know why, but for some reason I've never noticed that button holes run vertically. Ah, so that's the button hole guide has two lines. And that's why the buttons are always bunching (see above). Yes, I repeat: I am a crazy person.

Color Crisis

Ahhh! Why do I always do this? After I spent hours embroidering these pillow cases, I decided that the gold floss just doesn't work. I had doubts at the beginning, but for some reason did not listen to them. Why?!

So, I think I have to rip out all the gold and replace it. I'm thinking ice blue (like the pearl). It seems rather obvious now, these are going on a blue couch, I don't know why I thought gold. What do you think? This is how it would look (yay Gimp)