parasitegirl: (bunny dance)
[personal profile] parasitegirl
This is a long post, spanning two weeks, covering the renovation of a costume.

July 7th

For months I watched this bedlah not sell on Tribe.



I wanted it, because how do you not want to buy a costume with a belt that looks like (as one friend has put it) a Mexican wrestler exploded on it? As many of you may know, I have the "angry vagina V belt" so...yeah...high class isn't really my look. I think ZaBedazzler would have made a fine dance name for me if Ozma hadn't suited me. I resisted buying the set, thinking that the top looked...off. I couldn't tell if the model was just smaller chested than me or if the fact that the strap attached to the center (which isn't an easy design) was affecting the fit of the bra....something held me back. I knew that I'd move the halter strap if I ever got it. Middle straps move breasts outwards and kill cleavage.

It was listed as:
Worn 4 times, readjusted to fit with bust pads and support straps along spine (but can easily be removed if you don't want), TONS of beautiful Swarovsky A/B crystals, neat flame edging along bra and belt (reinforced with wire).

And the bra was listed as:B/C cup, fits up to 32" below-bust ribcage...which would be a bit tight for me but workable.

A dancer named Mirabai, however, eventually bought it and I was safe...until SHE put it up for sale.

I've met Mirabai in person and she's not that much smaller than me, she's Eshe sized and my height.... smaller, but not unworkable.  I bought it. She listed the ribcage as 30 inches, so I figured I might have to extend it.

Let's not go into the mess I put Mirabai through to get this. It involved an International money order, some seemingly lost mail... I totally owe Mirabai some drinks.

A month after the payment mess started, I had it.
I ripped open the box.
Belt fit! It would need some new lining and the hooks needed to be moved about 2cm...but so far so good.

Bra....I couldn't get it on. The tribe seller had added straps going from the halter to the back of the bra. These straps were simply red grosgrain ribbon and too short for me to fit the bra on...so I cut them off. I could still barely get the bra on, but I managed. The ribcage band was very tight. The costume flattened my chest.  The hooks were also built on a bra-close base in a way that if you hooked it at its widest you could see the bra-closure...which just looks tacky.

Hmmmm...

I took off the bra and took a good look at it. I knew I'd have to move the center strap and make it into a halter that attached to the cup sides...

WTF? Something was weird about where the ribcage met the cups. I turned it around and found black thread. I got out my seam ripper and pulled and pulled. Ghetto fix unmasked! At the side of each cup a wedge shape of beads had been removed from the bra and the fabric was crudely "darted."



I thought this had been done to make the ribcage band smaller. I went to my craft store. I bought some on-sale red terry-cloth-like fabric for the lining, some red felt as well (to provide an extra barrier between lining and the wire used on the flames to prevent sweat-rust issues)  and found close matching beads. I started covering the damaged surface at a coffee shop (while being watched by little old ladies who saw only the cup shape and kept asking about the hat I was making) and headed home to put on the bra. I had covered one wedge shape.

It was at this point that I realized why the ghetto fix had happened: the bra had a major design flaw.

I would like to state that I do not blame Mirabai for not mentioning the design flaw. She's a great person to buy costumes from, as many of you know! She had no clue it was there. You really need to have experience making and altering costumes to be able to figure out what is wrong with some costumes. It's much easier to realize that one doesn't fit you right and needs to keep moving until it find the right owner  than to sit down and figure out if the fit problem is you, or is the design...or both... Mirabai thought the cups were too big for her, which was partly right, but didn't figure out why. In thinking the cups were too big for her she was right in thinking that they should fit me...they should have!

I live abroad and am a cheapskate who likes to design her own costumes, so I sat and thought. The ghetto fix wasn't about band-length, as I had first thought, it was about moving the bottom point where the band meets the bra cup a little lower. As fixes go, it was on the right track...

With the darts undone the band that goes around the ribcage  attaches at the top of the cups down to about nipple level. It's fair to wonder "Well, Ozma, what's so bad about that? I haven't seen many bras like that...but so what?"



The ribcage band is usually the part of the bra we give our "under-bust measurement"...because it is supposed to be BELOW the bust! UNDER it. At the lowest part, the band needs to be strong and lay flat against your ribcage.The band should attach to the bottom of the U of your cups (with little buttresses coming up the side of the cups). If, like this costume, the band attaches high up on the sides of the U it can distort the cups, pulling the arms of the U into a wider arc, making the cups wider and more shallow.

If the band attaches at nipple level, you've got a major issue. The pressure of the band literally forced my nipples to compress against my chest, pushing the extra flesh of my breasts down and up. If I loosened the band pressure, the bottom of the cups would stand away from my ribcage and the bra would rest on, but not support, my chest...risking the dreaded underboob-ooze.

Let's get into what's wrong with this bra and what I did. I don't tell this tale to slander the original creator, she had some very solid ideas. I tell this tale as a guide to help those of us who do make our own costumes, so we learn from these mistakes...and for all of us who have opened a package to come face to face with a reality that challenges the dream costume we held in our head. Things can be radically changed. Very few people will ever want to do the sort of surgery I did...but it is do-able.

I regret that the Tribe seller is the picture I am using to explain this, but I couldn't take a before picture of myself. It was too obscene and painful to photograph. I probably am a cup size larger than the previous owners.

Let's get a general idea where the pressure is with this bra set up.

(rough photoshop)
This is where most of the pressure is.



Let's get  side look at her breast.

Yup. Squished. That is not her shoulder.

For Mirabai I am sure that the pressure on the cups made the cups too wide for her tiny frame, and no matter how much she padded she couldn't seem to get cleavage. But, no matter how much you pad on this design, you're not going to get cleavage. The best you can hope for is that you move your breasts slightly above the pressure points and they flatly spill out of the top.

So. WTF was I going to do? Now that I knew the design was flawed, I couldn't bring myself to sell it to anyone else...and I liked the set and wanted to wear it. And I am d*mned stubborn.

I thought in the shower, it is where I do a lot of thinking.

"You need to cut off the band and make new ones from scratch!" I said to myself.
"F*** YOU!" I replied to myself.
"You know that's the only answer."
"F********* Yoooooooouuu!!!!"
"Well, unless you want to scrap the whole bra for parts and build the whole thing from scratch."
"f****....f**** you're right."

I went back to my room, put on some clothing, and manipulated the bra with my hands, like a pervert with an invisable girlfriend.

"If I pull the bra here...the cups move like this...but if I move this...then..."

pressure on upper edges of the bra:


Pressure moved lower and halter attaching at top of cups:



I figured that the difference would be drastic and worth doing. I would probably go from cups too shallow to ones needing some dramatic, but not overwhelming, padding.

And then I put tape over the lines I was about to cut, lay down paper to catch bead spill...and cut...cut...cut.


I think we all understand, this was scary. In the past I once took a two piece costume and slashed the beaded skirt for parts and made a bedlah  belt of it ... this was scarier than that.

I then took some of the stretchy lining and used it to cover/cauterize the cut edges of the cups. The lining was also a design flaw. It seems to have been added before some of the beading edging was finished so you can't just seam rip it out cleanly.

The next morning I woke up and got to work.

I had grosgrain ribbon in my stash and used the ribbon, and the lining fabric I had picked up, to make my band base while watching the 3rd season of The Muppets.




I then played the dangerous game of band placement by pinning in the band, trying on, removing, trying again. I did not scratch up my chest, but I did give myself a thin 4inch scratch on my arm in the process.



After stitching it in place I took the train to my nearest craft store. I estimated that the surface area of my new bands might be slightly greater than the old ones, so I'd be unable to 100% cover the new band with the beads from the old. I picked up some rhinestone chain (matching the rhinestone chain in the flames) for the border of the band, and  got some yellow/gold beads for the sides of the cups to carry the flame shape down a little, so it didn't end abruptly where cut.

I then started the un-fun process of covering every exposed part of the band in beads.

A note to new costume makers: it is a common mistake to cover large areas with seed beads...beads of the exact same color and size. I know. I've done it.  It's a waste of your time. Seriously. The effect is lost at a distance. It looks rich, but not THAT rich. If you want to cover every inch of the fabric in a color, do it with beads and sequins. The sequins take up more surface area and the facets of the sequins and the angles of the beads will catch more light...otherwise invest in really great bling-tastic fabric and crystals to scatter over it and save the beads for fringe and filling in/creating shapes, lines, and adding depth.

The fire set is covered in a layer of beads. When I got it I thought "this must have taken a lot of time" and it did make it look a bit more old-school time-intensive home-made....but when covering the bands in the same alternating diamond pattern of beads I thought thoughts of a less charitable nature....

When I went to bed last night:

This will be day 3 of surgery. I will keep you posted.

July 9

Last night I beaded some more, but before I went to bed I got that urge to do something where the results would be more quickly evident. I wanted positive feedback and I didn't want the tedium of beading to leave me too burned out to finish. I want this done quickly.

One thing you should know about me is that in the seven years living in Japan I have worked hard to optimize my train time. There is currently a manners campaign going on for Tokyo metro trains. You can find propagandistic posters in black, white, and yellow urging you not to lounge around in the seats with food spilling everywhere, not to treat your seat like a your personal make-up station, and for god sake don't TALK on your cellphone. These signs all have the catch phrase (in English and Japanese) "Do it at home!" A gay friend of mine has suggested that they should do a series depicting the appropriate level of PDAs (Public Displays of Affection):

Hand holding?: Ok! Cunnilingus?: Do it at HOME!

I'm safe, because not only do I not indulge in oral sex on the trains but they have also yet to target me with a "Your craft projects? Do them at home!" poster. To the delight of young men and old ladies, I knit monsters on the train. For the young, cute men I am willing to smile and do an impromptu monster-puppet performance for them.  I embroider my crazy quilt on the train. And, yes, I've even managed to bead on the train. Don't ask me how. Prior to a trip into Tokyo or to work I sometimes prep costume lining. I trace, cut, and pin the fabric in place, roll it all into a small bag with my tin of sewing supplies,  and do the mindless whipstitching in transit on the train while listening to music, npr, or audible books on my iPod.

The belt has a few quirks. The original creator didn't reinforce the flame shapes with wire, so they started drooping. Whichever owner did the ghetto-dart-fix on the bra wisely wired the belt...it's the same tell-tale black thread. I'll need to wire the bra flames myself. Because sweat isn't great for wire, or fabric, or thread, I'm pre-lining the wire part of the belt with red felt to create a sweat barrier before I put in a removable lining. The felt layer will also make it easier to pin belt the belt to a skirt.


I just traced the edge, cut, pined and stitched.

The construction of this whole set fascinates and confuses me.

All four ends of the belt have wire loops, the "eye" part of a hook and eye fitting, going down the sides. One half of the belt also has extra fabric sticking out on both ends. It's my theory that the original creator made this belt for someone with larger hips than me and that it "laced" up the sides with the red fabric under the laces..or that it was supposed to do this in theory but it didn't work out and they never removed the eyes. This theory requires a pear shaped build to work, due to the tiny nature of the rib-cage band originally used.



I've removed the loops with my seam ripper and a wire clipper and I've snipped away those side flaps. The front contains small differences from the back. The front of the belt has rhinestone edging, the back is all beads. The front part has the AB crystals stitched on before the lining with no beads under the crystals. The back piece the AB crystals were added after the beading and after the lining. I ask WTF a lot.  I wonder what my commissioned costumes will make owners of the future ask



On the tiny train to work this morning I whipstitched the felt over the wire on one of the two belt pieces.  At lunchtime on a bench under the trees outside I did a little more. I'm the only white person here, I might be the only foreigner but I'd rather not hazard to guess who is Japanese and who is from another asian country. I'm different, so why fight being the freak by staying indoors at lunch and keeping my bling covered?

I finished stitching the felt at home.


During the process I also replaced rhinestones and beads on the belt. The rhinestones are set like they should be part of a rhinestone chain, but are sewn on one by one. It might be cheaper to occasionally get  this sort of left-over set rhinestones that were meant to be on a rhinestone chain, instead of buying chained ones or sew-on-stones, but it's more work than a chain and less elegant than sew-on-setting stones.

Later, I will check fringe and line the belt. Tomorrow, it's back to the bra.


Day Whatever:

I am lost at sea and can't remember when I last saw land.

Chalking the shape of the belt on the fabric I'll use to line the belt.


I also hand washed the belt last night. I figured that I might as well make sure this was as lovely as could be, what with all my work. It left a light ring of crud in my sink.

Progress:




July 10

I am currently transitioning back to wearing hard (gas semi-perm) contact lenses. My strong astigmatism and my blindnessish combine in a nasty way, soft contacts have a very hard time holding my prescription. I wore semi-perms in high school and most of college. At some point  in college, pastel chalk dust and other irritants being part of art school life,  I went back to wearing glasses full time. Years ago I started getting soft contacts because I wanted to wear contacts on occasion....and you can't 'only occasionally' wear hard lenses.  2-week disposables can almost hold my prescription, but they are still weak . The world remained slightly blurry when I wore them  and thus I only used them for my weekly gig, shows, and for special occasions...which ended up being a waste of money.

Getting used to hard lenses is a painful process. It was so painful the first time that I vividly remember one night that I went to far past my "getting used to them" time limit and wanted to claw my eyes out. I'm in my second week and I am currently up to 9 hours, but the 7th hour gets trying. I know that there will be a time when this is behind me and they feel more natural and comfortable for me than soft contacts ever did. I am already past the swearing.

This parallels where I am on this costume project. I remember the shock of realizing what was wrong with the bra. I remembered weighing the hours of discomfort that change would bring... but it's getting easier. It will be worth it.

I am no longer calling the designer a crack-smoking bling-(w)hore. I'm not back to loving her, but my love of her vision has returned. I know what it is like to have my vision extend beyond my early costuming attempts....that's why I have a few self-made costumes that I return to to update as I figure out better ways of doing things.

I've also sold items that I later discovered design fixes for, not costumes...but my knitted monsters; the first few have floppy neck issues...so I can't 100% condemn the creator for selling this to someone (who sold it to the next dancer, and to the next, and so on...) because I've been there. If I didn't love this costume I wouldn't be doing this. I love this costume. No, that's not right. I love the costume that this costume wanted to be.

I don't really have the time for this. I have a gold costume that I need to be finishing.

This afternoon I went outside on my lunch hour. I sat and sewed on a park bench under a tree sculpted to serve as an awning. It's rainy season, but the last few days have simply been cool and overcast. I finished stitching the lining for the front of my belt.

I'm going to be so happy when I finish lining the whole belt and hook it. Seeing it on me is going to give me the energy to finish the bra. I already have a few skirts it will work with (red crushed velvet trumpet skirt, a silk skirt of many rusty oranges for a subdued look, red double layer chiffon with lettuced edging) but I think this might be the costume in which I get to indulge my love of orange with. I love orange, but it is rare to find an orange that loves me...I think when this is finished I will either search out an orange (not hot orange) luxury velvet trumpet skirt and gauntlets (L.Rose is currently out of regular orange) or make some. I don't think I can work a whole orange costume, but the belt and bra would be the flush against my skin, creating a blingy DMZ between the orange skirt and my office-supply whiteness.

We're finding some inner peace right now, the costume and I. And on our way home we'll also be purchasing some red sequins to speed up the ribcage beading....and some farm-fresh squash to make soup with.

July 12
Evening report:


Soup: Amazing.

Belt: lined!

I have one more hook to put on it and a bit of futzing...but I have  a belt!

I needed this push because I won't have much costume time this weekend. Two restaurant shows, one Ansuya workshop, and some sort of Ansuya dance party" for workshop folks....but this will get me to pick up the needle and tie off when Monday rolls around. I don't want to loose momentum.


July 11

Once my belt was lined I was faced with this minor dilemma:
Should I give up my train time work or find some simple task that can be done on the train with the bra.

Belts are a little easier to work on in public, for obvious reasons. When I sew a bra in public I usually only expose the section I am working on, be it cup or strap or what not, instead of sitting around with a big ol' bra* for the world to see.

Keep in mind the term "big ol' bra" is relative. I live in Japan and many of my bras are padded beyond my current cup size...which makes them  "big ol'" here. ..when my bras travel and return to my homeland, they feel more or less average and occasionally petite. ..as do I. Like Tom Waits, I'm big in Japan.

Last weekend when I was beading in the Kashiwa Starbucks, beading the beadless wedge-shaped area caused by the ghetto-fix dart, two older ladies (probably nearing 80's?) watched me. They seemed to be the sort of old friends that go out and don't talk much, just sharing space calmly for hours at a time. I gave them a common focal point.

The exposed area was the cup of the bra. I had my iPod in (catching up on Fresh Air) and the alpha-lady signaled to me a few times for conversation.

"Is it a hat?" she asked?
"No, it's a dance costume, for belly dance."

And I beaded some more. She signaled again.

"That takes a lot of time, doesn't it?"
"Yes! It sure does!"
"It's pretty"
"Thanks."

....

"So, it's a hat, right?" and this time she made a gesture indicating that hats go on  heads.
"No. It's a costume."

I now realize that she either thought I had made a Japanese mistake, or that by "costume" I meant "very special sort of hat, not the sort of hat you are gesturing. This is not for every day wear." because she asked, and gestured again.

"Hat!"
"Costume. Bra. (and I gestured to my chest) Bellydance. Not hat."

And she smiled a certain smile, a smile that said "Pity that white girl doesn't understand Japanese, that's a nice hat she's working on though."


July 13

I purchased sequins, more beads, and cup pads in Shinjuku after the Ansuya workshop and prior to my restaurant show.

I'm pretty sleepy this morning, but I've almost finished one ribcage band!

(making Kermit T Frog "yaaaaaaay" hands and voice)

---
July 14

It's been a busy weekend for bellydance, so I haven't had much time to stitch. By Sunday afternoon, when I posted last, I was honestly drained. I was slogging around the apartment, trying to get energy enough to wash some clothing. I took a 30 minute nap around 3ish. I woke up, scrubbed up,  and took my third train into Tokyo in three days. At least Sunday night required no performances by me, no rolling my suitcase, no elaborate make-up. I simply had to get to a hafla of sorts and be a cheerful and supportive presence.

Of course, my costume rode in with me. My costume had been deprived of work time in my previous trips into and our of Tokyo due to my need to lug around a suitcase instead of a simple bag. By Sunday my beading and I were back on track, if you'll forgive the pun.

And today, a Monday of serious sweat, I once more took my work outside at lunch and stitched in the shade. There wasn't much breeze, but I go stir crazy if I have to sit behind a desk all day. Stitching has come at a time when my lunchtime walks become more and more impractical. I burn too easily. My very fair skin is why I lean towards costumes with warm colors. Cool blues and silvers bring out the blue undertones of my translucent skin: lovely as accents, but corpsifying as main hues.

I know that I am in the last leg of brainless beading. After this will come wiring the bra flames, bringing back the halter strap, padding and lining.

I am at the point where I want a costume pixie to do the tedious work for me.

Sometimes, when I am back home, my mother looks at my crafts and muses that there is some very unhappy sweatshop that houses her craft-illiterate real daughter.

July 15
To avoid beads for a while I tended to the floppy flames.  At lunch time I walked 15 minutes to the tiny shopping center with a small craft store to re-up my wire supply to strengthen the flames.

I am now starting to stitch in sweat and moisture barrier of thin felt over the wire. Later I will add padding and then line it.



I'll be traveling light tomorrow; seam ripping the halter strap lining out, and stitching a new lining in. Easy Peasy!

July 16

I've never seen crack vials first hand. Well, I probably have passed them and not noticed, but to my knowledge I've never looked at something and known it to be a crack vial. What I know about crack vials comes from watching The Wire. I'm ok with my socioeconomic remove from crack, I wish it were universal.

Most of my Japanese seed beads come in little clear plastic vials with a softer plastic for the cap. I think of these as my little crack vials. I know this is tacky. I look at them and remember a scene early on in The Wire where the character  of Bubbles is laughing at a prospective under cover operative and illuminating the details he's gotten wrong. Bubble points at the wedding band, which would have been long since hocked for a fix, and then asks to see the bottom of the operative's shoes. The shoes are all wrong, they don't have any crack vials or glass ground into their soles.

A few nights ago I stitched on gold beads as an edge decoration  over the area of  the cups where I had cut them from the previous ribcage bands. I did so while watching the Importance Of Being Earnest, which is about as far from crack as you can get. This section of the costume work is being brought to us by the English language films in the glorious box set of 50 Janus Film Classics I was given for Christmas. Pygmalion, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Third Man... they're helping.

Upon finishing the beadwork, I spilled the rest of the tiny gold beads into my tatami mat floor. From now on, if you want to check if I've been practicing diligently, check the soles of my feet. There is no need to check my hands, I've never had  a wedding band to hock for my fix.

July 18th
The heat is not going to let up for months. When I arrive at work the windows are open, the men in suits fan themselves with plastic fans bearing various advertisements, and there is no air conditioning. Then, on a signal I don’t understand, the men stand up and close the windows and the thin stream of air conditioning starts. The air cools before our bodies do.

I am currently resorting to dampening my hankerchief, tossing it into our office freezer, and cooling my neck once the fabric is stiff but not frozen solid. What I really want to do is scrape all the frost out of that little box and let it snow down my back and cleavage…but there are limits to the public freak level I am allowed. I will settles for the fact they are letting me dress like I am ready for a tropical cruise while they wear suits. On the days when a suit is required of me, they text message me the night before.

I have almost finished the ribcage bands on the bra. My costume is quieter now. It barely remembers the form it once took. I also have stopped cursing the creator, the beads, and the thread.

Now is the time in a costume where I wrestle with how many more flourishes to add. Just a little more, or just get it done with? Knowing when to end is a huge part of creation, and restoration. Should I sprinkle the band with tiny AB crystals? I’ll have to make a side trip tomorrow when I am in Tokyo to see a Noh performance and for class….but I hate it when the bands are utterly unornamented. I don’t like it when all the action happens in the front of the bra. I love tiny back accents. I almost always dance in the round, I enjoy thinking about the space behind me as I dance, and I have a lovely poppy tattoo on my upper back…all these are reasons that I want my rib-cage band to be perfect…my back should be a focus point at times.

Padding, lining, straps…I’ll have at least 2 hours on the trains tomorrow…and now I have a deadline. July 26th.

Last night I received an email from a collective of Tokyo photographers I worked with back in February. The membership rotates through an international group of photographers, all led by an ccentric Canadian Ex-pat who reminds me of a 50-something cross between Alan Alda and Peter Fonda. They meet every Saturday in a Harajuku photo studio, with a make-up artist, and go to work. They trade photos for model time with local actors, models, performers, and dancers (they’ve done some amazing work with Budoh dancers).

I was the first bellydancer they’d worked with and they really enjoyed the process. They, in turn, reminded me of the classmates I’d had back in art school, so I felt an instant ease and connection when communicating with them. They felt like my peers. It was very collaborative. I had four photographers (all being advised by Tim the Canadian) that day and we shot three costumes. They went a little crazy over veils, spins, and backbends.

The next week the various photographers sent me image files and I gave them feedback about what worked for me and what didn’t. I got a wonderful range of photos, from ones I can use for publicity, to straight up art shots…and some experiments that were fun in an art school way.

We’ve kept in touch via emails and facebook. I follow their work and their leader has given me some wonderful prints of his professional photography that I would never be able to afford to buy.

I’d been thinking of contacting them when I finished the fire set, but they got me first. I regret that I won’t be able to get my hand on red velvet flares before then. I really don’t have the time to make a pair..I don’t think…my recently ordered bling from Theesfeild should be here by then (and I promise I will forward any happy customer shots with my bling) and we may also shoot my Emerald city costume

This morning I sent off picture of the fire set and about 5 other costumes that I haven’t shot, with descriptions of veils and skirts we could swap in and out…as food for thought so we can start picking outfits and thinking about the whole look.I insisted that we MUST shoot the fire. I have promised veils, veils, veils.

The week prior I will have a very active work schedule. I get to leave the office and participate in a summer program when I teach a lesson to 3rd-6th grade students that includes yoga and kabaddi…24 times. That should burn off a kilo or two just in time AND force me to sleep well at night.


Tim wrote back saying that he’d forwarded the costume links it to the lead photographers (my favorites of the 4 I worked with) and that they would be sure to pump up the air-conditioning extra high, because things were gonna get hot. I know he was being silly…but air conditioning…I am SO there.


So, I must sew!

July 19




Let's not talk about the red stretch velvet that I picked up at the Shinjuku fabric store when I went to buy some crystals.

I don't HAVE a problem.

July 20th
Last Sunday I started my morning off drinking strong coffee in a Tokyo cafe as a friend of mine drank his coffee and smoked a cigarette. He asked me, as we sipped, if I had watched Coffee and Cigarets by JIm Jarmush. I had. I own it, in fact, although I find it to be some of his weakest work. It has its moments.  It has Tom Waits and Iggy Pop. My love of Mr. Waits is deep. This scene almost makes up for all the weaknesses. We talked about the Tom and Iggy scene.  We sipped. He puffed.

I went home. He went to work. I watched Coffee and Cigarettes it as I worked on the fire bra. I still love the Tom and Iggy scene.

In that scene is a moment where, after they have found an unclaimed pack of cigarettes and have both talked about having quit... Waits says that the best thing about having quit smoking is, you know, you can have a cigarette. It doesn't mean anything, because you've quit. They smoke.

We all do these things. I know that there are certain boys I can't call after a good performance if I'm not prepared to wake them up the next morning and have coffee with them. I assume that people who have given up crack shouldn't visit crack houses to see how their old friends are doing. And I know, I know, I can't go into a large fabric and craft store without bringing out more than I bargained for. I usually only go to craft stores BEFORE dance classes, so that I have a time limit.

This Saturday I was in Tokyo earlier than usual. I had to attend a Noh performance with my co-workers. I used to pride myself on a certain level of Japanese cultural appreciation. Kurusawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi? Hell, yes! Bunraku, Budoh, Kabuki? Bring it on! Temples, seen em. Zen Gardens? I'm gonna see all 16 rocks, one of these days.

Noh?

Three and a half hours of my life that I can't get back. I am not very good at sleeping while sitting, so I am pretty sure I saw more of the performance than my co-workers.  No love for Noh. None.

I'd lied about when my dance lessons started, so that I could get out of more socializing with co-workers, and after Noh was over I headed to Shinjuku's finest craft and fabric store.

I knew I would leave with more than just the AB crystals...

The fact that I didn't win a pair of red velvet Melodias on a recent Ebay auction was gnawing at me...as was the knowledge that a pair of red flares would give me a greater range of motion for the Saturday shoot next week.

Have I ever made pants before? Only the bestest pajama pants (psycedelic Alice in Wonderland print lined in flannel)...but never stretchy ones. Did I care? No.

I went to the 7th floor of the fabric building: Stretch red velvet, two meters.
Craft building 7th floor: machine needles, more safety pins, red serger thread, bra pads.
Craft building 5th floor: red sequins..and some other sequins for another project.
Craft building 2nd floor: Round Ab crystals. Teardrop crystals.

And I found a Starbucks and sat, stitching the lining on the neck strap, until class. I must have been outside too much or underwatered Staurday, because I didn't make it through class. I haven't been able to sleep much lately and that also was catching up with me. I seems to have lost more fat recently (althought I just had my yearly health exam for the city, and my weight is the same) and the night before the restaurant owner tried feeding me more because he doesn't want me to lose weight. Halfway through class I went whiter than my usual white and had to go home and lay down.

When I got home I drank and drank water. I slathered some french bread with oil, basil, tomatoes, and stinky cheese and gobbled it down. I tossed my red velvet into the washing machine and then hung it outside to dry. I crashed hard into bed.

Sunday morning I woke up and started to clean the kitchen, where my craft space is. I made a big omelet and gobbled it down. And then I used the new espresso maker. Its sad to see friends move away from Japan to their home countries (France in this case) but sometimes they sell you good stuff for cheap.


Game ON! I rolled out my paper and got to work.


Listening to an audiobook on my iPod, I drafted a crude pattern for flare pants. The pattern wasn't bad for a first time with no rough draft. If I do it again I will make them higher waisted with more flare. I may go back and gore them a bit. I do need to take them up about an inch.

I love my serger. I learned how to use Yahoo Auctions Japan, all in Japanese, to get myself a basic 3 thread serger for 100$ and figured out the Japanese instructions...about a week before my first photo shoot last year...and set to work making a quick skirt for the  gold coin set we'd be shooting.

After making the basic pants I thought about making an overskirt.

I found a red chiffon skirt that I will never again wear and never sell. It's your basic student chiffon.  I'd sent my then boyfriend to go to the (then) one dinky belly dance supply shop in Yokohama, staffed by a man who hates everyone, to buy it for me. The chiffon was thick enough, the kind that students think they only need one layer, until the results of flash photography come back. One circle, less than a full circle really, no slits.  Not worth wearing or selling.

I cut it up, serged flame shapes, and attached those shapes to a waistband. I should have made teh shapes all longer than the fringe, but I'll find a use for the over skirt even if it's not with the flame costume...and I have enough chiffon and velvet left over that I can make flame arm drapes if I desire.

And by then I was veeeeeeery hungry and out of elastic. I'd worked past lunch time and into the early afternoon. I ate some grapes and yogurt, packed my bag for Zumba class at my nearby sports club, and went to my nearby fabric store for more elastic...and then onto Zumba.

I am now Zumba-ed, and showered, and half fed.

This is where the pants, skirt, and belt are.




July 21
Morning

I put gores into the inside of my flared pants to make them fuller. I wish I'd started the flares a littler higher up, but oh, well. We learn.

Last night I lined the straps and started padding. I'm amazed that this bra has gone from too shallow to fit my breasts in without pain and ooze, to requiring pads...with just a change of strap design.

Behold, my secrets.


This morning, a national holiday, I woke up and fused some interfacing to felt. I wanted a portable project to bead because I would be meeting my French friends briefly to get my DVDs back from them before they return home.

I have two appliques I want to make. One small flame that I will add a mini swag of fringe to. Kina suggested a tiny fringe swag for the center of my back, to accent the line of my spine. I'll try the applique, and if I don't like it there I'll removed the mini fringe from it and use it as a center piece for a headband or arm band. I have leftover stretch velvet!

I made this while waiting for my friends at the Matsudo Starbucks, this time under the watchful eye of an elderly Japanese man with few teeth. He told me it was pretty.


I also want to try to make an applique pendant to wear as a necklace...if it doesn't work...headband or arm bands!


July 21st early evening.

Sweet sweet jesus, most of it is done! Now I just need to play around with arm bands and stuff...and figure out what other costumes I'll bring to the photo shoot.

Lined bra


With pants (I need to bend the flames in)




For a more Mther Earth Pheonix look:


ZaBedazzler!


Really, if I want to stay classy, I also have a double layer red chiffon skirt and my crushed velvet trumpet skirt in red.

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