My Brothers Wedding

The kilt making turned into some last minute marathon sewing by myself, my sister Joiwyn, and the best man Curtis.  Ivan (my brother) was trying to make his own kilt but became overwellmed with other things, so starting on Wednesday at 9pm my sister Joiwyn started working on it.  She worked almost constantly until 8am Saturday morning (the wedding day).  My kilt and Curtis' kilt were also completed Saturday morning... we cut some things close.  I finished making belt buckles at around 11am and the kilts were still having the temporary basting removed at around 3:45 (the ceremony started at 4) :-).  Even with all that the wedding went very well here are some pictures (and more here.)

Ivan & Amanda

The ceremony (I am in the kilt on the far left)

Some Dress Progress and a Frustrating Morning

I have now completed the main work on the skirt including a fitting for the gathers and the hem...

The bodice now has sewn on loops for the back lacing and is complete except for the final silk outer shell (which is waiting on the embroidery, which should be back to me soon)

This morning bought frustration.  I went down to my car to head to work only to find that it had been broken into...

Nothing major was missing except for the face plate for my radio...

All said and done the damage (counting window cost, a new radio, and a iPod charger) came to about $350...  Why do people do things like this?  They got less than $20 worth of value and caused me all that trouble...

Here was my fix for the window...

A New Toy for My Birthday

My birthday is tomorrow and my wife gave me a very cool present.

It is a Droid X... the screen is amazing and it is very fast.

I am getting very close to the end of summer quarter (last day of classes is the 19th) and my brothers wedding is fast approaching.  Now back to finishing up some homework and back to the dress and kilts...

Cutting Tulle and Making the Petticoat

A crazy truck driver and sewing progress.

To start with I had a wild experience today leaving school.  While walking to my bus stop I saw a traffic jam at the main campus entrance.  As I approached I discovered a over-sized load truck with a crane on it.  As I got closer I saw it had run into a sign turning into campus and they had a reciprocating saw and were cutting down the sign. 

I then managed to get to my bus stop and the truck managed to get free and moving.

Sorry bout the video quality/camera work

 It preceded onto campus after much effort from both Seattle PD and Campus police to get the lead car past the congestion and then my bus arrived.  We rode most of the way around campus with out incident until we reached the tight turn at the top of the hill by Meany Hall.  The truck was stuck again.

They were turning cars around.  And even turned a bus around by backing it on to a side street.  At this point I decided to leave the bus and walk toward the freeway to catch a different bus.

The front bus was just turned around, the third bus from was the one I exited

 I then walked toward the freeway planning to catch a 511 from the freeway stop, but at 45th and Brooklyn the 855 caught up with me so I just got back on that bus.  In total it took almost 2.5 hours to get home....

Adding boning to the lining of the bodice

Boned lining on the dress-form.

Mocking up the lacing

Laying out the kilt pattern on the tartan (from my measurements and on the tartan pattern)

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Progress on dress

Tartan in the house...

8 yards of double width MacDonald tartan (for two kilts) and 8 yards single width Dunbar tartan (for one kilt)