I've Gone to Bed, Really, Haven't I? I'm Not Sitting Here Blogging. Not Really.

I've been so busy lately I haven't really had time to post anything --

But here's what I've been doing:


This is a work in progress. It's Joseph's coat in our local theater's production of "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat."

Little did I realise what a nightmare this would be when I agreed to do it.

First off, the fabric had to be chosen, and the place to get it was almost 2 hours away -- so I called finally and had it mailed to me. Then it was another trip to get the satin. All my life I've lived in moderate to big cities -- Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Mission Viejo (the southern end of Orange County, CA) -- and then I moved to Middle-of-Nowhere, NC and I have nothing. Seriously -- we have a Wal-Mart and a Lowe's hardware, and about 3 grocery stores. That's it.

So I really need a good reason to drive to Raleigh, NC, which is about an hour and a half south. I try to combine several trips into one -- doctor's appointment with shopping, etc. So the satin had to wait until I had to be in Raleigh for something else. This further delayed the project.

Plus, I am a supreme procrastinator with a lot of excuses.

This coat has ten different pleats inside cut in triangle shapes. They are made so that when the actor wears it, it looks like just your regular coat. But then when the brothers grab the edges, it turns into this circular skirted thing.

Well, right there you have it -- I've spent the last week trying to figure out diameter times pi minus circumference around bottom of coat divided by ten. Believe it or not, my high school geometry class actually came in useful here. My brain, however, is completely fried.

This was after I adapted a pattern from a bathrobe to do the thing. This afternoon after looking at it, I decided to leave off the little nehru collar that I originally was going to put on -- and then I decided to use all that roped cording I got at the Durham Scrap Exchange.

Definitely a work in progress.

I just spent the last 2 hours sewing in the pleats and then ripping out the tops and pinning them down. I need to press them all closed and start on the lining (same process), and then put the sleeves on, then sew the lining and those pleats together, and THEN I should be close to finished. The first real dress rehearsal is tomorrow. It's now 3:42AM and I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open.

So that said, here I am blogging (procrastinating again), after listening to a few lectures on www.ted.com, all about design. If you're going to have to be trapped in the same room as a nightmare project, you might just as well learn something.

So I think I'm giving up and going to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

xoxox