summer wardrobe expansion: garment #7.

again, this one ain't for me.

this is my first foray into what is really considered menswear.

it's a shirt for my dad, that i made him for his birthday.

he gave me an old shirt that was becoming increasingly threadbare and i took it apart at the seams and cut out a new shirt from that pattern, with custom alterations for length.

i was a little worried about fit (i could have used half a yard more fabric), but it fit fine!

yes!!!

front.

pocket.

back.

for some reason i really fell in love with the back of this shirt. like where the yoke meets the back and the pleats and the collar. and it just looks so clean and nice, especially inside, like i figured out how to turn it just so and it's perfect (if i may say so myself).

summer wardrobe expansion: garment #6.

technically this next garment wasn't for my own wardrobe. but hey, i made it and it's for someone's wardrobe, so i get to showcase it.

this is an embroidered t-shirt. i didn't make the t-shirt. i don't have the right machines to make t-shirts that way they should be made.

i embroidered this to give to my friend. it's the k records logo.

summer wardrobe expansion: garment #5.

i love this dress so much!

i don't know what else to say about it.

well, actually there's a bit of a secret about this dress.

that's all.

(hmm... yes. as you can tell from the litter box and the food bowls in the background, i have cats. i find that adding a litter box behind a pretty dress enhances the striking complexity of a fashion photograph. if this half-assed picture can be considered a fashion photograph. i'm new at the using-a-digital-camera/taking-pictures-of-myself thing.)

summer wardrobe expansion: garment #1.

so finally, here is the FIRST garment i made this summer.

fabulous high-waisted red pants!

with white stitching!

and pockets!

this fabric was so odd. it put its color on everything it touched. my sewing machine was pink by the time i finished the pants. my light-colored underwear is pink after a day in these pants. the back of my purse was redder than the front of my purse after having it pressed against my hip for a full day of wearing these pants at pitchfork. silly pants turning my thighs and fingers red!

they make my skin blush.

front.

back.

button and fly.

the left back pocket. that's my own original modern art back pocket cross. so if you ever see any pants with that back pocket design, you know who made 'em. probably.

summer wardrobe expansion: garment #4.

okay, fine, technically i didn't make this one.

i was sorting through a bag of scrap fabric that i had selected not to carefully from my sewing classroom's garbage bin at the end of the year. and guess what i found? this lovely top. it was all sewn together, with a zipper in the back and everything. not very well made: the shoulder darts are in different places, the seams are unfinished - but that doesn't matter. i put it on, and hey, this looks alright. so then i just bought a pack of black bias tape and finished all the edges, and bam! a new shirt.

a moment i have been waiting for...

...when the future really is in sight.

i checked out a library book today.

it is due on the day i leave chicago.

less than three weeks.

every urban sidewalk deserves a (neglected) sunflower patch.

yesterday.

new fabric for new cardigan. !

help ma. lie to ma.

do "nothing"; golden, crunchy nothing and be okay with it.

all of it.

maybe this city can be really beautiful.

i'm a city kid and that makes me giddy.

thrilled.

pulled apart and glued back together by that neon colored elmer's glue from when i was three.

dinner's pasta came in colors not wholly unlike those of the glue.

dinner's pasta came perfect.

i wish to inform you that your kisses are too wet.

but your hands are so warm.

your broken fingernails are full of the dirt and spit that you put into them,

and the skin cells that i contribute.

i can pull my hair out in handfuls.

if we live in a world full of toxins, is my hair still considered organic material?

visit the south side, where i seldom go.

campfire shared with underage kids who got to it first. they smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol out of red plastic cups. they got to sit on the upwind side of their fire.

we passed around bags of gourmet popcorn and a carton of lemonade and our eyes teared up from all the smoke.

a campfire without songs, with few people whom i much care for.

fuckin' facebook-organized, eighth-grade-time-capsule-openin' campfire.

i didn't even put anything in the cardboard box.

i just tagged along and made jokes.

and whispered mean things under my breath.

what a bitch of a former best friend who doesn't care to talk to me.

social butterfly.

you bailed on our high school, you have to give everyone updates.

what college are you going to.

what do you think you're going to study.

hey we totally need to get together, you say,

with jennifer and "frizz," like last summer when we saw grease.

yeah. yeah totally. yeah, right.

my shirt is stained with honey and your enthusiasm is stained with false.

art class. tact class. i'll hug you twice, 'cause girls do that.

some people might have considered this gathering a kind of "closure" on high school.

i'd already had my closure.

a week ago, i went to a graduation party with kids i actually like in attendance.

that was a great evening.

they are people i want to see again.

what i took from last night:

i didn't think i needed to see most of those kids again, and now i'm sure of it.

and my hair still smells like the smoke from the fire.