I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!

The internet at my house has been out for the past couple weeks.. It was kind of nice not to be obsessing over facebook but it was also driving me crazy cuz I was so behind on work.. Thanks to my wonderful brother James who put in many hours into fixing our home Internet... I'm back to life! First stop is this here blogspot, as its in dire need of attention. My apologies for not updating lately but now i'm back on track!

So my brother James... one of the sweetest, raddest guys you'll ever meet. He's the lead singer of Holy Grail which you should most definitely check out. They just finished their new album "Crisis in Utopia" and will be playing at a crazy metal festival in Japan this week. James is an awesome older brother and has been a major influence on  my fashion sense while growing up. This is the guy who wore a plaid suit to his senior prom. He's an excellent shopper and introduced me to all the amazing hidden thrift stores and the wonderful world of ebay.

Now that im older I try to repay him for years of wisdom by being his personal seamstress.. taking in shirts, fixing his pant seams that ripped while jumping around on stage, sewing in band patches. The last project we worked on was a bit more of a challenge. He wanted a custom made stage vest for performing.. He gave me 2 of his favorite vests, told me what he liked about each, and what he wanted differently. I took all this info and created a fresh pattern that was a blend of the 2 vests + some adjustments.

                           Heres the final result:

We chose a pleather for the outside and a satiny fabric for the lining. This was my first time working with pleather and probably my last unless i'm making a bag or something. Even though I have an industrial machine, I went through several needles and my machine made some scary noises. I had shards of needles flown at my face, bleeding fingers, and cried at least once. Then I realized I had been using the wrong size needle... oh how it makes a difference! Trust me, go to downtown LA and stock up on as many different needle sizes as you can so you don't end up hating yourself.

Aside from the needle troubles, the pleather was just plain funky. One of the side seams kept curling up and I couldn't get it to stay down. Also, I was not satisfied with the overall drape of the vest.

Next assignment: Redo the whole vest in REAL leather. I'm thinking a nice soft, pliable leather. It will drape better and look great on stage.

p.s. these buttons are really cool : )

Now, go listen to some Holy Grail <3